A PATHFINDER 

DISCOVERY, INVENTION 
AND INDUSTRY 



SEP 12 i«)f 




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Her he $ a t> t J w skt-JL 



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A PATHFINDER 

DISCOVERY, INVENTION AND INDUSTRY 



HOW THE WORLD CAME TO HAVE AQUADAG 

AND OILDAG; ALSO, CARBORUNDUM, 

ARTIFICIAL GRAPHITE AND OTHER 

VALUABLE PRODUCTS OF THE 

ELECTRIC FURNACE 



THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF EDUCATIONAL 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF 

EMINENT INVENTORS 



• a* 



PUBLISHED BY] 

THE PRESS SCRAP BOOK 

203 Broadway, New York 

1910 



"FT* HO 
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PREFACE 

The subject of this work has for a number of 
years had in process of preparation a history of 
his life and work. It has not been his intention 
to publish it, his sole purpose being to record 
the events of his life for the benefit of his family 
and friends. Recently he permitted the pub- 
lishers to read this autobiographical sketch, and 
in view of the prominence he has attained, we 
urged him to give, to the youth and young men 
of the country, this life-story, and with much 
hesitation he finally assented to such publica- 
tion, and we here give it in his own words, with 
the belief that it may prove of very material 
benefit to many of the young men of the world, 
relating, as it does, his boyhood inspirations, 
struggles as a young man, contentions against 
many vicissitudes, his persistent dedication of 
himself to a fixed purpose, his final triumphs, 
and the acceptance of the results he has attained 
by the scientific and industrial world. 

THE PUBLISHERS 



DEDICATION 

To Ambitious Youth everywhere, particu- 
larly those who need a realization of their own 
mental and physical ability, as well as a proper 
conception of the world's appreciation of ac- 
complishment, to inspire them to their greatest 
efforts to win success, this modest work is dedi- 
cated. Should it be the inspiration that arouses 
one life and awakens it to its own possibilities, 
guiding one to devote his life and efforts as a 
leader in the world's work, the object of its 
publication will have been effected. 



INDEX 

Preface 
Dedication 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The World's Recognition 15 

II Dr. Acheson's Ancestors 23 

III Dr. Acheson's Story; Birth to Sixteen Years 

of Age 26 

IV Sixteenth to Twenty-second Year ... 31 
V Twenty-second to Twenty-fourth Year . 41 

VI At Menlo Park 54 

VII In Europe 69 

VIII Twenty-eighth to Thirty-fifth Year ... 83 

IX Discovery and Development of Carborundum 97 

X Graphite 116 

XI Egyptianized Clay; Direct Reduction of 
Aluminum and Silicon; Production of 
Siloxicon, Lubricating Graphite, Aqua- 
dag and Oildag 123 

XII Societies and Clubs 131 

XIII Papers Written and Read 133 

XIV Honors Conferred 135 

XV Conclusion 137 



CHAPTER I 

THE WORLD'S RECOGNITION 

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
rough-hew them how we will. — Shakespeare. 

IT requires a most thorough knowledge and 
careful study of the lives of men, who have 
become eminent in various fields, to realize 
fully the force and truth of the above quotation. 
Could we but know the heart-secrets of men 
who have won renown for great works, we would 
learn that moving them irresistibly toward 
higher things was a prompting to which their 
inspiration responded. There is a wealth of 
enlightenment and education in reviewing such 
lives, and the presentation of the Perkin Medal 
to Dr. Edward Goodrich Acheson on January 
21st, 19 10, has brought into new prominence 
an inventor whose life work and achievements 
make a fascinating story. Twice has his 
scientific research won for him the John Scott 
Medal, presented by the Franklin Institute of 



Philadelphia. The American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences has also awarded him the famous 
Rumford Medals. An additional great honor 
came to him when the University of Pittsburg 
recognized his work by conferring upon him the 
Degree of Doctor of Science. The award and 
presentation of the Perkin Medal came as a 
tribute of appreciation from fellow -chemists 
and electro-chemists of the United States, who 
thus frankly and generously recognized his 
position in the field in which he has so success- 
fully labored. 

The Perkin Medal was first presented to the 
noted English scientist, Sir William H. Perkin, 
in recognition of his services to art and industry 
in developing the uses of coal tar, for which he 
was also knighted by King Edward VII. It is a 
gold decoration given now yearly to the Ameri- 
can Scientist who has accomplished the most 
valuable work in applied chemistry, and its 
presentation to Dr. Edward Goodrich Acheson 
by the unanimous vote of committees represent- 
ing the Society of Chemical Industry, the 
American Chemical Society and the American 

16 



Electro-Chemical Society, showed marked 
acknowledgment and appreciation of the fact 
that Dr. Acheson ranks with the eminent of his 
profession, in the application of his talents and 
his energy and industry to the betterment of 
mankind, the advancement of science, and the 
improvement of the conditions under which we 
live. 

The session of the Society of Chemical Indus- 
try, at which the presentation was made, was 
presided over by Maximilian Toch, Chairman of 
the New York section of the Society, and Pro- 
fessor C. F. Chandler, of Columbia University, 
made the presentation in the presence of about 
one hundred members and guests. Professor 
Chandler, speaking as a Past President of the 
Society of Chemical Industry, in reviewing 
Dr. Acheson's life work, said in part : 

"Dr. Acheson possesses the rare merit of 
combining the inventive, the constructive, and 
the organizing faculties. He has been most 
successful in discovering entirely new materials 
suitable for a great variety of purposes, which 
have become indispensable to the world. He 

i7 



has also been able to devise most perfect 
methods and appliances for producing his new 
products on a large scale, and to organize and 
finance great companies to put his inventions 
into successful operation. 

"His efforts have not been directed merely 
to improving processes and products previously 
known. He has made entirely new departures 
and created new industries, supplied previously 
unknown materials for use in the arts and indus- 
tries, and he has discovered uses for his new 
materials and processes for their application. 
He is a representative electro-chemical engineer, 
and it is eminently proper that he should have 
been selected by the great chemical societies 
of this country to receive the Perkin Medal." 

Dr. Acheson, in accepting the Medal, said: 
"In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, 
the world was ready for another step forward 
in the chemical arts. It was ripe for the birth 
of a new industry until then unknown — indus- 
trial electro-chemistry. The field of research 
and development for the electro-chemist will be 
practically limitless, and will extend beyond 

18 



what the world is now considering — the 'con- 
servation of natural resources' — for they will 
create valuable products from wastes not now 
dignified by the title of resources." 

With a set of experimental apparatus set 
up in the room, Dr. Acheson, the discoverer of 
carborundum and artificial graphite, demon- 
strated some of his newer investigations and 
their wonderful results while the learned and 
distinguished audience looked on with deeply 
gratified interest. Dr. Acheson's discoveries 
of Oildag and Aquadag, attracted the closest 
observation and most earnest expressions of 
applause as well as surprise. 

Dr. L. H. Baekeland, speaking as President 
of the American Electro-Chemical Society, said 
in part : 

"What is more to the credit of Dr. Acheson 
than anything else, is the fact that he under- 
took experiments which probably had been 
attempted several times before, without suc- 
cess, by people who had more theoretical prep- 
aration than he. But his unusual keenness of 
observation, his logical faculty, and more than 

19 



anything, his appreciation of what was of pre- 
ponderant importance, and of secondary inter- 
est, brought him results, where others had 
failed, and by which he opened a new field of 
chemical investigation and industrial applica- 
tions. 

"Dr. Acheson stands as a living example to 
many a chemist, loaded with theoretical knowl- 
edge and paper wisdom, and light in judgment 
or common sense. He entered into a new road 
with very little knowledge to guide him, but 
he had an open mind, a fertile brain, a con- 
structive faculty, and the talents of the tire- 
less, intelligent experimenter. Whatever he 
took up he started from the beginning, and 
developed to the end. 

"His very failures were changed into vic- 
tories through practical channels. His work on 
carborundum was initiated by an experiment 
so simple and so meagre in results, that few 
people would have found an incentive to fur- 
ther investigation. Later on, when in the manu- 
facture of carborundum, he had to battle with 
irregularities, due to a partial dissociation of 

20 



the silicon carbide, he created a new industry, 
the manufacture of artificial graphite. In the 
same way, he gave us Siloxicon, a product 
which seems to have a considerable future. 

"In constructing the great road of indus- 
trial progress, very few of us are pathfinders; 
some are surveyors, other ones constructors, 
others again are merely switchmen, a brake- 
man and conductors. Dr. Acheson not only 
was a pathfinder, but he has been a constructor, 
conductor, switchman — everything. By his 
manifold abilities and good judgment, he has 
been able to develop his discoveries into com- 
mercial successes. He has shown us that an 
inventor or a scientist is not necessarily a 
theoretical dreamer unfit for executive or prac- 
tical work." 

Dr. Wilder D. Bancroft, of Cornell Univer- 
sity, speaking as President of the American 
Chemical Society, said in the course of an inter- 
esting and entertaining address: 

"To make carborundum he needed elec- 
trodes, so he invented graphite. A suitable 
refractory was needed to keep the heat in the 

21 



furnace, and Mr. Acheson thereupon prepared 
siloxicon. The furnace had to have brick walls 
at first, and they were promptly forthcoming in 
the form of Egyptianized Clay. In order to 
keep everything running smoothly, including 
the three automobiles which he had acquired 
in the meantime, Mr. Acheson prepared the 
lubricating graphite which he has shown you 
to-night as Aquadag and Oildag. * * * * 
You may consider Mr. Acheson's discoveries 
as scientific inventions or as dividend payers. 
It makes no difference. They stand all tests, 
and they mark him as one of the great invent- 
ors of the world." 



22 



CHAPTER II 

DR. ACHESON'S ANCESTORS 

The Acheson family is of ancient Scottish 
origin, and the name is derived from a contrac- 
tion of the baptismal name of " Archibald,' ' 
in Scottish abbreviation "Archie." It was 
spelled in various ways in the early records of 
Scotland, appearing as Achinson, Akinsonn, 
Atkinson, etc. The name first occurred in For- 
farshire, in the east of Scotland, and can be 
traced back to about the middle of the fifteenth 
century. At the close of that century, we find 
the spelling of the name definitely taking its 
present form, first as Achesonne, then in the 
course of two generations, abbreviated to Ache- 
son. We find the Acheson's intermarried, about 
1500, with the noble family of Grey, Alexander 
Achesonne, who married Isobelle Grey, having 
been direct ancestor of the family to which Dr. 
Edward Goodrich Acheson belongs. Alexander 
Achesonne was also progenitor of the noble 

23 



family of Gosford, whose genealogy is given in 
Burke's Peerage. The first baronet of the 
family was Sir Archibald Acheson, of Hadding- 
ton, North Britain, son of Captain Patrick Ache- 
son, of Edinburgh, and the sixth baronet, Sir 
Archibald Acheson, was elevated to the peerage 
of Ireland, July 20th, 1776, as Baron Acheson, 
and was made Viscount Gosford, of Market Hill, 
County Armagh, Ireland, June 20th, 1785. The 
fourth Earl of Gosford has been Vice-Chamber- 
lain to Her Majesty Queen Alexandra since 1901. 

The Goodrich family, from which Dr. Edward 
Goodrich Acheson is descended on the maternal 
side, is of English origin, and the exact date of 
the arrival of the first of the name in America 
is unknown. The family had already given 
distinguished names to American annals in the 
eighteenth century, several of its members 
achieving lasting fame in literature, theology, 
and the sciences, including astronomy and 
mathematics. 

Dr. Acheson's grandfather, David Acheson, 
immigrated to America from Belfast, Ireland, 
and settled in Washington, Pa., at a time when 

24 



that extreme southwestern section of the state 
still had some of the old frontier associations 
and surroundings. Grandfather Acheson was 
gifted with a high degree of intelligence, energy, 
and enterprise, and was quick to comprehend 
the resources and grasp the opportunities of 
the growing state. He prospered in business 
and gained the esteem of his neighbors, who 
elected him to the legislature, to which he was 
three times re-elected. He founded a family 
which acquired great distinction in Pennsyl- 
vania. One of his sons, Marcus W. Acheson 
was Judge of the United States Circuit Court 
for the Third Judicial District, which includes 
the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Dela- 
ware; another Alexander Acheson was Judge 
of Washington County, Pennsylvania, and an- 
other son, William Acheson, was the father 
of the subject of our sketch. 



25 



CHAPTER III 

DR. ACHESON'S STORY— BIRTH TO SIXTEEN 
YEARS OF AGE 

I was born in the "round corner" at the 
intersection of Main and Maiden Streets, in the 
town of Washington, Pennsylvania, on the 9th 
day of March, 1856, and was the sixth child 
and second son of William and Sarah Diana 
(Ruple) Acheson. My father was in the gro- 
cery business, his family living over and back of 
his store, and consisting of himself, my mother, 
one brother, William — eight years my senior — 
two sisters, Margaret and Ellen — six and four 
years my seniors respectively — myself, and two 
sisters, Jean and Belle, one and three years my 
juniors. 

In 1 86 1 our family moved to Monticello, 
situated on the Allegheny River, some forty- 
seven miles above Pittsburgh, and three above 
Kittanning, the County Seat of Armstrong 
County, Pa. The property and village of Mon- 

26 



ticello and a furnace located there had been 
purchased by an uncle and other gentlemen of 
Pittsburgh and my father. My father was 
made manager, and in view of the fact that his 
past life had not in any sense prepared him for 
that of a manufacturer, and more particularly 
an iron manufacturer, with its multitudinous 
ramifications, cares and responsibilities, I con- 
sider that his selection for so responsible a posi- 
tion was solely due to his sterling qualities of 
uprightness, energy, and all-around worth. He 
became successful as a furnaceman, the "Mon- 
ticello Irons" made under his management 
attaining quite a reputation for high quality. 

My boyhood days at Monticello were, as I 
remember them, one round of pleasure. I con- 
fined myself, however, to the strictly boyish 
pursuits; my Summer days being spent in fish- 
ing, boating, hunting, and spending many hours 
about the furnace, where I think I was some- 
what of a favorite with the workmen. In the 
Winter I attended the " District School" con- 
ducted by one of the neighboring farmers. 

I think it was in 1869 I went in company 

27 



with R. D. Laughlin, whose uncles lived at and 
owned Stewardson Furnace, situated some seven 
miles from my home, to a boarding school at 
North Sewickley, Beaver County, Pa. I re- 
mained there for one school year, and afterward 
went with young Laughlin to an Academy, 
sometimes called the * 'School in the Mountains," 
at Belief onte, Centre County, Pa., situated in 
the midst of the Allegheny Mountains. Here I 
commenced my first real work at study. I was 
beginning to form some conception of what my 
future life might be. I had no taste for the lan- 
guages, but much fondness for mathematics. 
I was deeply interested in geometry, trigon- 
ometry and surveying, and the following inci- 
dent which occurred at the time of one of my 
visits at home during a vacation illustrates my 
mathematical tendencies. 

At Monticello Furnace, there was a ferry 
crossing the river, the boat being attached by 
means of a moving wheel to a wire rope stretched 
across the river. I believe as the results of high 
water in the river and extra high chimneys, this 
rope caught upon the smokestacks of a boat and 

28 



fell across its deck. The captain of the boat had 
the rope cut in two with a cold chisel, thus effect- 
ually destroying it for further use in ferry work. 
It was at this time that I came home and the 
matter of determining the length for a new cable 
was under discussion. My geometry, trigon- 
ometry, and surveying being fresh in my mind, 
and believing that I had an opportunity for dis- 
playing my boyish knowledge, I secured the 
boards forming the head of a barrel, fastened 
them together by appropriate cleats to make a 
complete disc, graduated the edge into three 
hundred and sixty degrees, mounted on it a 
cross-bar with sights at each end, the whole being 
supported by a suitable staff. I laid off a base 
line on one shore of the river, and from the 
extremities measured with my crude theodolite 
the included angles between the line and the 
supporting point of the cable on the opposite 
side of the river and determined the distance 
between the supports of the proposed cable on 
the opposite sides of the river. You can prob- 
ably readily imagine that neither my father nor 
others had much confidence in the result of my 

29 



engineering feat, but I remember that after the 
distance had been determined in some other 
manner, it was found that my calculations were 
approximately correct. This I look upon as my 
first practical engineering, and occurred, I be- 
lieve, when I was in my sixteenth year. 

During the Fall term in 1872, 1 was suddenly 
called home, my father having already antici- 
pated the financial catastrophe that over- 
whelmed the country in 1873-4. This ended 
my school days. While still in my seventeenth 
year, and with practically but three years school- 
ing, I found myself brought suddenly face to 
face with the necessity of making for myself a 
livelihood. 



30 



CHAPTER IV 

SIXTEENTH TO TWENTY-SECOND YEAR 

My first employment after this recall from 
school was that of time-keeper at the furnace. 
This permitted of my devoting considerable 
time to mechanical and other pursuits. My 
father took much interest in mechanics, and I 
can yet remember his suggesting to me that I 
devote my thoughts to the accomplishment of 
something of value. He pointed out the need 
of an improved means of drilling holes in the 
rocks and slates in the coal mines where blast- 
ing was required. He offered to meet any ex- 
penses I might incur in my efforts to perfect a 
boring machine. I set to work at the problem, 
and before me I now have the papers of a Caveat 
of the United States Patent Office issued to me 
under date of March 5th, 1873, for "Improve- 
ments in Process of Mining Coal, Ore, Clay, 
Etc." This notes my first entry into the 
United States Patent Office at the age of seven- 

3i 



teen. I also have before me a full itemized bill 
of William Fisher of Pittsburgh, dated April 
25th, 1873, for the labor and material entering 
into the construction of a Boring Machine I 
had him make for me. The total cost I find 
was $154.65 ; the bill being receipted June, 1873. 
The machine worked fairly well, but owing to 
my inexperience, I had designed it too heavy 
and it was cumbersome to handle. In 1886, 
I saw this same machine in a machine shop at 
Kittanning, where it was doing efficient work 
as a drilling machine. 

In the early part of 1873, my father was 
taken seriously ill with heart disease, from which 
he had suffered for some years. He was finally 
relieved by death on the 20th day of June, 1873. 

Immediately following my father's death, a 
great financial panic came down upon the 
country. The iron business was crushed by 
the depression. The company in which my 
father's estate was placed was carried into 
bankruptcy in 1874. All that was left to my 
mother and her family was a one-half interest in 
a coal property that my father and brother 

32 



had fortunately bought some years previously. 
Both my father and brother had transferred 
their holdings in this property to their wives, 
and the income from this was all that was left 
to their families. 

I think it was in 1873, when seventeen years 
old, I made my first practical acquaintance with 
Electricity. I bought a number of cheap yel- 
low metal watches. Fitting up galvanic bat- 
teries, I secured a number of my mother's silver 
forks and with them as anodes, silver plated the 
watch cases, and sold them at an increased 
price. When my mother's effects were divided 
among her children, my "anodes" were properly 
deducted from my allotment. 

With my old relics, I found a notebook con- 
taining entries made in those boyhood days, 
and amongst them are a number of quotations 
from Shakespeare and other sources, which I 
think have had much to do with moulding my 
character. Here are a few of them: 

"Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour." 

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew 
them how we will." 

"Life's but a walking shadow." 

33 



"The worst is death, and death shall have his day." 

"Hope to enjoy is little less in joy, than hope en- 
joyed." 

I am somewhat uncertain of the dates of 
the various changes that I made during the 
next succeeding years, but I think the following 
history is, in the main, correct. In October, 
1874, I went to Reynoldsville, Pa., where a 
brother-in-law, W. H. Smith, husband of my 
sister Ellen, was Engineer-in-Charge of opening 
coal mines and laying railroads to them. I 
was employed for a short period with his civil 
engineering corps, and then became a clerk in a 
dry goods and notion store in Reynoldsville. 
After a short service here, I was called back to 
Monticello, which had been leased from the 
assignees by the uncles of my friend, R. D. 
Laughlin, and they were engaged in converting 
a very large stock of Lake Superior ore and 
other supplies into salable iron. My brother, 
William, was managing the furnace for the 
Messrs. Laughlin, and I was placed in the gen- 
eral store as clerk. 

When the stocks on hand were worked up 
and the furnace finally and for all time stopped 

34 



operations, I went to Emlenton, a station 
on the Allegheny Valley Railroad, where my 
brother-in-law, W. H. Smith, was then located 
as Engineer-in-Charge of the construction of a 
narrow gauge railroad from Emlenton to Clarion 
through a newly discovered oil territory. I 
was employed in various capacities in the corps. 
While there I met a gentleman by the name of 
Kendle from Buffalo, N. Y., who was represent- 
ing parties owning a patented apparatus for 
regulating the supply of water to steam boilers, 
and for giving an alarm by whistle in event of 
the water becoming dangerously low in the 
boiler. I became much interested and believed 
the affair a good one. I brought the matter 
to the attention of a brother-in-law, Dr. T. M. 
Allison of Kittanning, Pa., husband of my sister 
Margaret, and induced him to join me in buying 
the right to the patent for Pittsburgh and the 
County of Allegheny, Pa. We paid one thou- 
sand dollars for this right, the Doctor loaning me 
the money to pay for my half. I went to Pitts- 
burgh and established myself in a room on the 
second floor of a bank building at the corner of 

35 



Wood and Sixth Streets. The room to the best 
of my recollection, contained nothing but a 
washstand, an office table, two chairs and a cot, 
and served me as office and bedroom. On the 
glass in the door, I had painted the name of the 
firm — "Acheson & Allison," and the line of 
their business. As the results of strenuous 
efforts over much time, I secured orders for and 
placed two of the regulators, one in a machine 
shop and the other in a rolling mill. 

Using my office as a bedroom, I took my 
meals at a restaurant, one of those where you 
get your meals by the card, each one being re- 
corded by a hole in the pasteboard. Expenses 
went on without an income, times got gloomy, 
and I had contracted a debt with the restaurant 
keeper. Things were so desperate I resolved on 
a change. I went to the head office of the Alle- 
gheny Valley Railroad and inquired for Mr. 
Thomas M. King, General Superintendent of the 
Railroad. Mr. King had been entertained at 
my home and would know me by name. I saw 
him, told my story, and applied for a position. 
He told me to return at a certain hour the next 

36 



day, and if he were not in to have his Secretary 
call him by telegraph. I called as told and found 
him out. His Secretary called him up and found 
him at Parker Station. Mr. King asked that 
I call at his office the next day at a certain hour, 
which I did and learned from him I could have 
the position of ticket clerk at Parker, at a salary 
of fifty dollars per month, provided I furnished 
bonds for one thousand dollars. I thanked 
him, called upon my uncle, M. W. Acheson, then 
a prominent lawyer of Pittsburgh, afterwards 
Judge of the Circuit Court of the Third Judicial 
District of the United States*, stated my case 
to him and he went on my bond. I immediately 
reported to Mr. King and received a pass to 
Parker. I settled up my business affairs in 
Pittsburgh, which were largely covered by con- 
veying my office and household effects to the 
restaurant proprietor for his account against 
me, and on the following evening I was in Parker, 
where I was duly installed in my new work. 

I think it was early in 1877 that I went to 
Parker, which was at that time the centre of 

* Died of apoplexy June 21st, 1906. 

37 



the then stirring petroleum country of America. 
A narrow gauge railroad ran from the Parker 
Station out to and through the oil country of 
Millers Town, Cams City, and adjacent terri- 
tory. Great crowds of people would come in 
on this road and take trains on the Allegheny 
Valley Railroad, making my duties lively and 
strenuous. 

Early in life I developed an acute pride and 
was quick to resent any accusation of dishonesty 
or evil intent. This was well illustrated by an 
incident which occurred here. One day several 
men came into the gentlemen's room in the sta- 
tion. I recognized them as lumbermen, who 
had probably come down the River on rafts of 
timber — a class of men usually rough and un- 
couth. One of them came up to the ticket win- 
dow and bought a ticket to a point up on the 
Clarion River. After having left the window, 
he presently returned and accused me of having 
given him short change. I protested against 
his accusation, when he said, "It is all right for 
you to claim innocence, but I saw you take the 
bill from the change," or words to that effect. 

38 



The ticket window was fairly large and not pro- 
tected, as is now the custom, with wire grating. 
Instantly my arm was outstretched and I struck 
the man in the face with my fist. A great tur- 
moil ensued. The agent and clerks hurriedly 
locked all doors, expecting the raftsmen to 
make a general assault. Much to my gratifica- 
tion and the relief of the office force, the man 
whom I had struck presently returned and apolo- 
gized, saying he had been mistaken, having 
found his change all right. 

I think I remained at Parker about six 
months. I went to Pittsburgh on the last pas- 
senger train that passed over the Allegheny 
Valley Railroad before it was shut down by the 
great railroad strike of 1877. A general reduc- 
tion of ten per cent, was made in the wages and 
salaries of the employes of the railroad ; my fifty 
dollars was thereby reduced to forty-five dollars. 
The railroad station was on the East bank of 
the Allegheny River, while the city of Parker 
was on the West side. There was but one place 
for me to board — a hotel adjoining the station, 
and I was required to pay thirty dollars per 

39 



month. The balance out of my salary was not 
large and the end of the year 1877, saw me once 
more with W. H. Smith as a member of a Civil 
Engineer Corps in Bradford, McKean County, 
Pa. Mr. Smith was now Engineer-in-Charge of 
the construction of a narrow gauge railroad 
from Bradford, Pa., to Olean, N. Y. I had so 
far progressed in years and experience that I 
was made Resident Engineer of a Division from 
the town of Gilmore to the New York State line. 



40 



CHAPTER V 

TWENTY-SECOND TO TWENTY-FOURTH YEAR 

I look back on my life and experience while 
on this work with much real pleasure. Being 
but twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, with 
a strong, rugged constitution and unbounded 
enthusiasm, I was ready to meet and enjoy any 
hardships encountered. The country was wild, 
rough and heavily timbered. It was in the 
first acts of development into the most busy and 
bustling of oil territories. My boarding-house 
and headquarters were in a rough, frame house, 
little more than a shanty, in the forest not far 
from the New York State line. The house ac- 
commodated not only our engineering party, 
but a number of oil well drillers and teamsters. 
The first floor consisted of a small front room, 
containing pine benches and a wood stove, the 
time of year being Winter; back of that was a 
dining-room, with a long pine table and benches 
on each side, and still back of that, the kitchen. 

4i 



My bed consisted of a rough board box rilled 
with straw in a room over the front room down- 
stairs ; the stovepipe from the wood stove passed 
up at the foot of my bunk and out through a 
large hole in the roof. At night the fire went 
out and many mornings I have awakened and 
found a tolerable good coating of snow on my 
bed coverings, it having entered through the large 
opening around the stovepipe where it passed 
through the roof. Along the house, outside of 
the front door, was a shelf or bench on which 
were tin basins to be used in washing; the nec- 
essary water was obtained from a brook passing 
the door by breaking the ice covering it. 

On the completion of the railroad construc- 
tion, I secured a position as tank gauger with 
the United Pipe Lines Company in Bradford. 
The United Pipe Lines Company was a sub -com- 
pany of the Standard Oil Company. They had 
a great network of pipes throughout the oil 
territory. These pipes were connected to the 
oil tanks at the wells and conducted the oil to 
large storage tanks located at convenient ship- 
ping points. A tank gauger's duties were to 

42 



ride about the country, usually on horseback, 
and, with a steel tape line, accurately measure 
the depth of the tank, its circumference at var- 
ious points between its top and bottom, these 
varying owing to the tank being smaller at the 
top than the bottom ; note was also made of the 
thickness of the staves forming the tank, and, 
if any, how much and where, supports and cross- 
pieces, known as "dead wood," were placed 
inside of the tank. These measurements and 
information were entered in a note book and 
transcribed in the office in Bradford; and from 
them, Mr. R. M. Sayer, the Superintendent, and 
his sister as his assistant, calculated out a skele- 
ton of a table of capacity for the tank measured, 
which was identified by a number the gauger 
nailed on it after measuring. 

The skeleton for the table of capacity, as 
prepared by the Superintendent, was handed to 
one of the gaugers and with it as a basis, he pre- 
pared and filled out a complete table, this work 
being done by him after he returned to the office 
from his field work, and for it he was paid a cer- 
tain price per table. I found this work very 

43 



much to my liking and quite remunerative, 
receiving three dollars per day for gauging, and 
sometimes making as much as six dollars extra 
by filling out tables. I became quite expert in 
making the tables, and made a rather good, clear 
figure. This evidently impressed the Super- 
intendent, for, wishing to have some tables used 
by him and his sister in calculating the skeleton 
tables, made in the new, he set me to work copy- 
ing them. They were very extensive, consisting 
of a great mass of figures. There was absolutely 
nothing about them that would inform one how 
they were made, nevertheless they excited my 
curiosity and made me envious of the superior 
knowledge of Mr. Sayer. 

Here my restless, inquisitive nature asserted 
itself and I commenced the calculations for, and 
construction of, a set of tables from which to 
rapidly compute the capacities of tanks. To 
put them in a permanent form, I sent to New 
York and had a very handsome, strong, leather- 
covered book made. The book is now before 
me and on the fly leaf is printed: 

44 



Tank Gaugers' Pocket Tables. 

Circumference and Diameter of Circles, 

Barrels per Inch, Deadwood Tables, Etc. 

E. G. ACHESON, 

Bradford, Pa., August i, 1878. 

Each page is ruled and appropriate headings 

printed. It contains about six hundred pages and 

I had filled about one-third of it with the results 

of my tedious calculations, when Mr. Sayer 

learned of my work upon it and discharged me. 

Settling up my affairs, I took a train for 

Monticello where my mother and two younger 

sisters still lived. On the train I found Mr. 

Daniel O'Day,* Manager of the United Pipe 

Lines Company. I related my story to him, and 

he told me to return to Bradford, and on his 

return he would investigate my case. 

Not long after my return home, I suffered the 
greatest loss of my life — the counsel and guiding 
spirit of my mother, who died November 13th, 
1878, after having been for several years a. 
patient, uncomplaining invalid. It is to her 
guiding spirit I owe my fixed purposes in life 

*Died September 13th, 1906. 

45 



and many, if not all, of my almost miraculous 
escapes from the snares which beset my way as 
a young man. 

My two sisters, Jean and Belle, wished to go 
to the Seminary at Washington, Pa. I con- 
cluded to go with them to Washington, with the 
hope of obtaining a position on a Civil Engin- 
eering Corps, which was about to take the field 
for the preliminary survey of a proposed rail- 
road to be called the Pittsburgh Southern, 
which was to run south from Pittsburgh to 
Morgantown, West Va. I secured a position 
on this work, a Mr. McConahey was Chief Engin- 
eer of the Survey, and I was appointed his First- 
Assistant. 

I think the surveying party left Washington, 
Pa., for Morgantown, West Va., on December 
31st, 1878. We went by narrow gauge railroad 
to Waynesboro, and there, being a heavy snow 
on the ground, by sledges to Morgantown. 
When on the hill, overlooking the Monongahela 
River and still some five miles from Morgan- 
town, our sledge broke down. The night was 
bitter cold, I remember the thermometer stood 

46 



at zero. I was taken with severe pains in my 
stomach. This, I think, was the beginning of 
the stomach trouble from which I suffered for 
many years. When our sledge broke down, it 
was late at night and impossible to obtain 
a suitable conveyance. Our party of fifteen 
started to walk. My pains increased and be- 
tween two of the axmen of the party, I was 
partly carried to Morgantown, where we arrived 
at two o'clock in the morning. Shortly after 
arriving, the pains increased beyond my endur- 
ance, and I was given a hypodermic injection of 
morphia. I remember I slept for something 
like twenty hours, and remained confined to 
my room for seven days. I then took the field, 
and, with the transit at the head of the party, 
run a line towards Pittsburgh for eighty-five 
miles, tramping continuously in snow. 

After the completion of this survey, I left 
my sisters in Washington and returned to Brad- 
ford and was put back on the force of Tank 
Gaugers, having agreed to the demands of Mr. 
Sayer that I give up, while in his employ, the 
book of tables I was making, cease to work upon 

47 



the subject, and work in an outlying territory 
with the town of Duke Centre as my head- 
quarters. I went to Duke Centre and had as a 
co-worker, a man by the name of Bates. After 
being there some weeks, I became restless and 
could not resist the temptation to occupy my 
evenings on my old line of calculations. Not 
long after this, I was called in to Bradford by 
Mr. Sayer, and there told that Mr. Bates had 
picked up a piece of paper from the floor of the 
room we jointly used as an office, had brought 
the paper to Mr. Sayer, and he recognized my 
writing and figures, and also that the figures on 
the paper indicated I was once more calculating 
out my tables. I acknowledged he was correct, 
and was removed from Duke Centre to Bradford 
where I was confined to making out tank cap- 
acity tables from the skeletons prepared by 
Mr. Sayer or his sister. For this work I was 
paid by the piece, and I noticed there was a 
gradual falling off of the amount allotted to me. 
The evident intention of Sayer was to starve me 
out. At this time Mr. Sayer got married and 
went on a trip with his bride to Lake Chautau- 

48 



qua, leaving in charge of the office a Mr. King, 
one of the gaugers. Mr. Saver's sister performed 
all the calculating relating to the small oil tanks 
employed at the oil wells, but the field measure- 
ments of the large iron storage tanks of the 
Pipe Lines Company were forwarded to Mr. 
Sayer, who made the calculations and returned 
the results to the Bradford Office. 

It happened one morning, after I had com- 
pleted the meagre work that had been allotted 
to me, I went out on the street and up town, re- 
turning about noon to see if there was more 
work to be had. I found the office in a great 
uproar. A large iron storage tank had been 
completed somewhere in the territory the pre- 
vious day, the field measurements taken and 
sent forward to Mr. Sayer. Immediately after 
being measured, the tank was partly filled with 
oil and the Bradford Office wished to know the 
amount of oil it contained in order to report it 
to the head office at Oil City. Mr. Saver's cal- 
culations would not return until the following 
day. While I was in the office, Mr. Snow, the 
Superintendent of the United Pipe Lines, came 

49 



in and asked me if I could calculate the capacity 
of the tank. I answered "Yes." He said to 
proceed; I did. The tank held approximately 
twenty-five thousand barrels of oil. My figures 
were used that evening to report to Oil City. 
The next day Mr. Sayer's figures arrived and 
were found to differ five barrels from mine. Mr. 
Sayer was advised of the discrepancy and by 
return mail acknowledged he had *nade an error 
of five barrels in his calculations. He was re- 
moved from the superintendency. Had I been 
older, I probably would have been made Super- 
intendent of Tank Gauging, but, under the cir- 
cumstances, an experienced man was brought 
from the Parker field for the position and I was 
moved into the offices of the United Pipe Lines 
and made assistant to Mr. Charles R. Huntley, 
who was in charge of the department known as 
"Oil Freshening," i. e., the collecting of the 
storage dues from the operators and issuing cer- 
tificates that no charges stood against it. Mr. 
Huntley has remained a friend ever since. He 
is now identified with many industries in and 
about Buffalo; the General Manager of the 

i 

5o 



Buffalo General Electric Company, and a Dir- 
ector of the International Acheson Graphite 
Company. 

While in this position I received seventy- 
five dollars per month, and during my spare time 
I became much interested in scientific subjects, 
particularly electrical ones. I was a constant 
reader of the ''Scientific American," the leading 
or only publication of the times keeping in close 
touch with the rapidly expanding electrical 
field, such as the telephone and Edison's work 
on lighting. My studies were much stimulated 
by close association as room-mate with a Mr. 
Kuno Kuhn, who was the Superintendent of a 
large oil company, and a man well informed on 
scientific subjects. I devised plans for a small 
dynamo and had one built in a local machine 
shop. It was faulty in design; the bearings 
were too light and the workmanship on it was 
not good. The armature struck the field and 
I could not make it work. 

I became so much enraptured with electrical 
work that I concluded to sever my connection 
with the United Pipe Lines and seek an opening 

5i 



in that field. I notified the Pipe Line officers 
of my intention. They tried to dissuade me by 
offering to increase my salary to ninety dollars 
per month. Their efforts, however, were with- 
out avail, and I left, I think, late in the Fall of 
1879, going down to Monticello, where my 
brother still lived. He, my sisters and friends, 
opposed my going to New York to look for 
electrical work, as was my intention. I was 
persuaded to join my brother in the business of 
mining iron ore. My two younger sisters, Jean 
and Belle, and I started into housekeeping, I 
spending my time superintending about sixty 
men mining iron ore at various mines located 
on the Allegheny River and Red Bank Creek. 

While some profit was derived from the ore 
mined, it was largely expended and lost in 
searching for deposits that were not remunera- 
tive, or failed to exist at the points where open- 
ings were made. 

By the Fall of 1880, I had concluded there 
was no promising future in the iron ore business 
in the Valley of the Allegheny, and once more 
became restless to go East and cast my lot with 

52 



the electrical industry. I wrote to Mr. Edward 
Weston of Newark, N. J., for a position. Dr. 
Weston, now the manufacturer of the well- 
known electrical measuring instruments, was 
then a large manufacturer of electro-plating 
dynamos, which was at that time one of the 
foremost departments of electrical work. He 
replied that he could not offer me employ- 
ment. This did not quench my desire and 
determination. 



53 



CHAPTER VI 

AT MENLO PARK 

My sisters and I broke up housekeeping. 
They went to Philadelphia to attend school, 
and I, with a new suit of clothes on my back, 
which I still distinctly remember, and one hun- 
dred dollars in my pocket — my return from ore 
mining — started for New York, a City I had not 
up to that time seen. 

I stopped off at Newark and called on Mr. 
Weston. When he came into the office of the 
Works in answer to my card, which had been 
taken to him, he exclaimed at once, "I wrote you 
I could not give you employment." I replied 
I knew that to be the case, but I came on never- 
theless. 

I went on to New York City. I called at all 
of the electrical establishments whose names 
and addresses I could find, — the medical battery 
manufacturer's predominating. I came near 
getting an opening at the Western Electrical 

54 



Works, which made telegraph instruments, etc. 
When I called there, I was told they were in need 
of a young man to test instruments, that a young 
man had already applied for the position, and in 
case he was not on hand the next morning, I 
could have the place. I returned early next day 
and to my sorrow was told the young man had 
reported. I remember this was on Saturday. 
I was getting desperate. Edison and his labor- 
atory at Menlo Park were then much in the pub- 
lic eye. I had little hope of securing an opening 
there, but, as a desperate, final resort, took the 
train out to Menlo Park. I climbed the low 
hill from the station, entered a small brick build- 
ing in the corner of a large fenced inclosure. 
The building contained the office down stairs 
and Edison's library up stairs. I handed my 
card to a boy in the office with the request to 
see Mr. Edison. He took the card and disap- 
peared, presently returning, he opened a small 
wicket gate and inviting me to enter, conducted 
me out of a rear entrance of the office, across a 
vacant lot and into a long two-story frame build- 
ing. He took me upstairs and into a room cov- 

55 



ering the entire second floor containing a num- 
ber of long pine tables, the walls being lined with 
shelves holding bottles. At one of the tables 
sat three men, the centre one in a colored calico 
shirt, without coat, was introduced as Mr. 
Edison. The one on his left I knew afterward to 
be Mr. William J. Hammer, and the one on the 
right as Mr. Francis R. Upton. Mr. Edison, 
placing one hand to his ear to indicate I should 
speak loudly, asked, "What do you wish?"; I 
replied "Work." He replied, with perhaps 
impatience, "Go out to the machine shop and 
see Krussi," and returned to the work absorb- 
ing his attention. Mr. Hammer kindly told me 
to go down stairs, pass back through the labor- 
atory, cross the yard to a one-story brick build- 
ing and inquire for Mr. Krussi, who was the 
Superintendent. 

I followed Mr. Hammer's directions and 
entering the machine shop, found myself in a 
small office, almost completely filled with a 
large draughting table, over which a man was 
working. An attendant received my inquiry 
for Mr. Krussi, and while he was gone I was very 

56 



busy preparing myself, loading my gun, so to 
speak. The draughting table inspired me. I 
had, had some experience using the tools of a 
draughtsman in my civil engineering work. 
Presently a tall, foreign-looking gentleman 
entered and asked me what I wanted. This was 
Mr. Krussi. On the spur of the moment, I am 
afraid I told a white lie. I replied, "Mr. Edison 
sent me to you for you to put me to work." 
"What kind of work?" he asked; "Draughting," 
I said. ' 'All right, ' ' he replied. ' 'Mr. Hornig needs 
an assistant. Can you report for duty Monday 
morning ?" I assured him I could. So it hap- 
pened that the 12th day of September, 1880, 
while still in my twenty- fifth year, saw me 
installed in Mr. Edison's employ at Menlo Park, 
N. J. Mr. Krussi soon learned of the decep- 
tion I had played upon him, and held me under 
suspicion for a long time. 

Menlo Park, in the Fall of 1880, was com- 
posed almost entirely of Edison's interests. 
There was the Pennsylvania Railroad station, 
a hotel, at which I boarded, the homes of Mr. 
Edison, Charles Batchelor, and Francis Upton 

57 



three or four boarding houses, Edison's labora- 
tory, office, machine shop, and a new building 
to be used as a lamp factory, the first of its kind 
ever constructed. There were probably two 
hundred men employed in the Edison works and 
great activity existed. A few days after I was 
at work, I took up the subject of perfecting the 
small dynamo I had made while in Bradford. 
I found it so faulty that I concluded to build a 
new one. I had the necessary iron castings 
made at Newark, and with the help of a co- 
worker, Martin Force, to set the tools in the 
lathe, I worked in the machine shop at night, 
where I was permitted the use of the tools. Mr. 
Edison several times stopped at the lathe at 
which I was working and watched me intently. 
I presume he had forgotten me and had to 
inquire who I was. Edison was then but thirty- 
three years of age, although world-renowned by 
reason of his great telegraph inventions. The 
World was at that time looking expectantly to 
Menlo Park for the solution of practical electric 
incandescent lighting. After I had been at 
Menlo Park long enough to feel at home, I 

58 



showed Edison the small dynamo I had made at 
Bradford and asked his opinion of the ideas in- 
volved. He said it was like the one designed by 
Siemens, and told me to go over to his library 
and get from Dr. Moses, the librarian, a certain 
book in which I would find a machine like mine 
described. I did so and found, as he had said, 
Siemens' dynamo almost exactly the same as 
the one I was working on. I remember the 
book contained a photograph of the machine, 
and it was a fair picture of my own machine, 
design of the frame and all. I then changed the 
design to that of a rotating transformer. 

Shortly after this personal acquaintance was 
formed with Mr. Edison, I was transferred from 
the position of Assistant to Mr. Hornig, to the 
drafting room devoted to making the drawings 
for Mr. Edison's patent applications and more 
special work in which Mr. Samuel D. Mott was 
principal draftsman. 

Mr. Edison was at this time working upon 
an electric meter to be used in connection 
with central station distribution. I became ac- 
quainted with the requirements of the case and 

59 



the urgent need of such an instrument. What 
appeared to be a happy thought occurred to me 
for the method and design of a meter. I made a 
drawing of my proposed instrument, and the 
next time Edison came into the room, I showed 
it to him. He seated himself on a high stool at 
the drawing table, put his arms on the board 
and his head, face down, on them, and seemed 
lost for some time in thought. After some min- 
utes he raised his head and addressing me said, 
"I do not pay you to make suggestions to me 
how do you know but I already had that idea, 
and now if I use it you will think I took it from 
you." I assured him I considered anything I 
could produce while in his employ and pertain- 
ing to his interests, belonged to him; that my 
thinking on those lines was due to my being in 
his laboratory and cognizant of his needs and 
lines of work. He made a test of my meter 
scheme, and, notwithstanding it looked so feas- 
ible, it proved a failure. Immediately after this 
incident, I was taken from the drafting room 
and placed in the original experimental depart- 
ment. I was now in my glory. I had a large 

60 



room under my supervision, equipped with all 
the conveniences required, balance room, muffle 
furnaces, air pressure, gas, electricity, steam 
bath cabinet, etc. I was thrown into associa- 
tion with most agreeable companions. I, at 
this time, formed a close friendship with Dr. 
Edward L. Nichols, who had recently returned 
from Europe where he had followed an exten- 
sive course of study in the foremost universities 
of the Continent. He was at this time doing 
special scientific work for Edison. The Doctor 
is now Professor of Physics at Cornell Univer- 
sity. I made a number of special investiga- 
tions for Edison, — especially on the filament for 
the incandescent lamp. I had every oppor- 
tunity to use my inventive faculties. 

I think it was in the following December 
that I was one day called by telephone to go 
down to the new lamp factory and see Mr. 
Edison. When I arrived at the factory, I found 
Mr. Edison, Francis R. Upton, Charles Batche- 
lor, and Edward H. Johnson in conference; 
these three gentlemen were partners of Edison 
and looked after various departments. I was 

61 



ushered into their presence, and Edison informed 
me that Mr. Batchelor, who was in charge of the 
construction, development and operation of the 
lamp factory, was soon to sail for Europe to pre- 
pare for the exhibit to be made at the Electrical 
Exhibition to be held in Paris during the com- 
ing Summer, and that he wished me to take 
charge of the factory. I demurred and said I 
would much prefer to remain in the laboratory 
on experimental work. He said that lamp manu- 
facturing was still experimental, and he was 
kind and frank enough to say he wanted me to 
take hold of it because I was a thinker. He 
won the day and under Mr. Batchelor's instruc- 
tions I began my duties. I think it was the 
third or fourth day after I had been there, that 
the following conversation occurred between 
Batchelor and myself. "Mr. Batchelor, how 
much am I to get here as salary?" I asked. 
"How much have you been getting at the lab- 
oratory?" he answered. "I was getting seven 
dollars and fifty cents per week." "Well, I 
think we can do a little better here," he said. 
"You will have to pay me one hundred dollars 

62 



per month if you wish me to remain. I was 
getting seventy-five dollars and could have had 
ninety dollars per month from the Standard Oil 
interests, but I threw that aside to enter experi- 
mental work," I replied. "That is more than 
we can afford to pay," he said. I told him I 
was of the same opinion, owing to my inexperi- 
ence, but he would have to excuse me from con- 
tinuing. I did not return the next day. Mr. 
Upton, against his will, was required to take 
charge and relieve Mr. Batchelor. 

I sat around my boarding-house for several 
days and spent most of the time wondering if 
I had made a mistake. Finally I brought my 
courage up to the point of walking up to the 
laboratory. When I entered I met Edison, and 
he laughingly joked me about not being able to 
stand the work at the lamp factory. Then he 
said, "There in the end of the room is an 
hydraulic press ; have it put in order, and make 
for me a small graphite loop like this (making a 
sketch like a horseshoe). I want the loop one 
inch outside diameter, the filament to be twenty- 
five thousandths of an inch wide and two thou- 

63 



sandths of an inch thick. I will have steel plates 
made for you to press sheets between and a die 
made for punching out the filaments. When 
you make one capable of mounting in a lamp, I 
will give you a prize of one hundred dollars." 
All of which was done as he wished, and I 
received the one hundred dollars. I find I now 
have in my safe an ordinary visiting card on 
which is pasted one of these graphite loops, and 
on the card is written: 

"Menlo Park, N. J., Feb. n, 1881. 
Hydraulic pressure one hundred tons, (this 
referred to total pressure on a sheet of graphite 
about one and three-quarters inches by four 
inches from which the loops were punched.) 
Thickness fifteen ten-thousandths of an inch. 
This loop won one hundred dollars as a prize; 
the prize being offered by T. A. Edison to the 
undersigned. 

E. G. ACHESON." 

Mr. Edison then entered into an agreement 
with me to make thirty thousand of these fila- 
ments. I engaged a man and a boy to help me, 
and became so expert at making them that I 
was earning twelve dollars per day by the time 
sixteen thousand had been turned out. Edison, 

64 



at this time, was occupied in New York, building 
the first electric lighting station in Pearl Street. 
The filaments I was making of graphite pro- 
duced a magnificent light, but they did not last 
long in use, disintegrating rapidly. I had made 
sixteen thousand of them and then went to Mr. 
Upton and told him that I was not happy in 
making an inefficient article, notwithstanding 
I was realizing, for me, a great deal of money. 
I considered it a waste of money and would 
much prefer to throw up my contract. He 
wrote to Mr. Edison about the matter, and in a 
few days I received the following letter : 

"New York, April 20, 1881. 
Mr. E. Acheson, 

Menlo Park, N. J. 
Dear Sir: 

You had better go into the lamp factory and 
learn the lamp business in all its details. 

Yours truly, 

Thos. A. Edison." 

I at once knew this meant my preparation 
for a sojourn in Europe as expert in electric 
lamp manufacturing. I now returned to the 
lamp factory, which I had a few weeks before 

65 



left, but under very different auspices. I went 
through all of the departments, learning to do 
the work with my own hands . The filaments were 
then made of bamboo. I fashioned the wood fibre, 
carbonized them, mounted them on their plati- 
num wires, which I had sealed in glass, for the 
base of the lamp, called "inside part." I sealed 
the "inside part" into the glass globe, exhausted 
the air from the lamp, sealed and tested it and 
prepared it for shipment. I studied the details 
of the various machinery and apparatus of the 
factory, and made myself competent to con- 
struct and operate one. My relations with 
Edison at this time may be gathered from the 
following letter: 

"Menlo Park, N. J., May 2nd, 1881. 
Mr. E. G. Acheson: 

Please come up to the laboratory and bring 
one of those nickel molds in which they bend the 
fibre to carbonize it, and press a piece of plum- 
bago the thickness of the mold. It is, I believe, 
one-eighth, of an inch and then hollow it out for 
the nickel piece to allow the carbon to draw up. 
After you have got it, have Dr. Haid pass the 
gas over it. I want to see if we cannot make 
these little plated molds out of plumbago using 

66 



the nickel piece to put straight on the fibre. 
If we could use these, it would save a great deal 
of money. Also try some experiments on getting 
the best mixture of litherage and glycerine, 
also the right proportions of plaster of Paris 
for the sockets of the lamps. 
We are lame on these points. 

Yours, 

Edison." 

While I was thus preparing myself for the 
specific work of electric incandescent lamp 
manufacturing, I was at night diligently at 
work studying electrical distribution, measure- 
ment, and the science generally. At this time 
the literature devoted to electrical science was 
limited. I have here before me a book to which 
I owe much; it is certainly dry reading, but I 
worked hard over its contents. It is entitled 
"Reports of the Committee on Electrical Stand- 
ards, appointed by the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science," published under 
date of 1873. 

After I had fairly well mastered the lamp 
business, Edison had me prepare a complete set 
of instruments for measuring the efficiency of 
lamps. These consisted of a Rheostat, Con- 

67 



denser, Galvanometer, Standard Cell, Resistance 
Coils, Wheatstone's Bridge, and Photometer. 
This last mentioned instrument was the only 
one built under my supervision and according 
to my design. A description of this Photometer 
is given in the volume " Dynamo-Electricity* ' 
by George B. Prescott, 1884. 



68 



CHAPTER VII 
IN EUROPE 

Everything possible having been done to 
prepare for a very complete exhibit of Edison's 
electrical inventions at the coming International 
Electrical Exposition in Paris, and it having 
been decided I should go over as First Assistant 
to Mr. Batchelor, who was Chief Engineer and 
Edison's representative, I sailed out of New 
York Harbor on board the French liner 
"Amerique" on the 20th day of July, 1881, — 
nine months and eight days from the day I 
entered Mr. Edison's employ at Menlo Park. 

Mr. Batchelor, his wife, and two little daugh- 
ters were on the vessel. I enjoyed the voyage 
immensely. This trip is memorable, not only 
as being my first experience on the ocean, but 
more especially for the formation of the acquain- 
tance of two gentlemen, who have always since 
been close friends. One was Mr. John S. Huyler, 
a confectionery manufacturer of New York, who 

69 



was making his first trip to Europe for the pur- 
pose of studying the business in its cities, and 
the other was Mr. Frank L. Freeman,* a patent 
lawyer of Washington, D. C, who was going to 
Paris as a United States Commissioner to the 
International Electrical Exhibition. Mr. Free- 
man has since procured for me thirty-nine United 
States Patents. 

At the Exposition I was First Assistant, but 
had charge particularly of the testing apparatus. 
Edison's exhibit contained the only complete set 
at the Exposition. An International Committee 
composed of Mr. William Crookes, now Sir Wil- 
liam Crookes, Major R. Y. Armstrong, both of 
England, and Prof. G. F. Barker of Philadelphia, 
was appointed to determine the relative effi- 
ciencies of the incandescent lamps exhibited. 
These comprised those of Edison, Maxim, Sawn 
and Lane-Fox. Mr. H. Crookes, son of Sir Wil- 
liam, and I assisted in making the measurements. 

Mr. Edison's interests were in charge of Mr. 
Batchelor, myself and four assistants, amongst 
whom was a Mr. James C. Hippie, who had come 

* Died March 5th, 1907. 
70 



over from Menlo Park as a special expert in the 
glass working of the Edison lamp. He and I 
became closely associated, and many years after- 
wards he was employed by me in my Carbor- 
undum interests. 

At the close of the Exposition, I and the rest 
of the Edison staff transferred our attention to 
the construction of machine shops and lamp 
factories at Ivry-sur-Seine for the Society Edison 
Continentale of Paris, France, a Company 
formed to operate the Edison patents in Europe. 
While devoting the most of my time to the fac- 
tory building, as occasion would permit, I was 
sent out to install small lighting plants in other 
countries. These plants were used as exhibits 
and formed the basis for the formation of com- 
panies to work the Edison patents. My first 
experience of this kind was the installation of 
electric lights in the drawing-rooms of the great 
Scala Theatre of Milan, Italy. Then I installed 
a plant in a museum in Brussels, Belgium; after- 
wards started off an installation in the Hotel 
de Ville, Antwerp, Belgium; then an installation 
in the Restaurant .Kramopolsky, Amsterdam, 

7i 



Holland. These were the first in these several 
countries. 

It was while building the lamp factory at 
Ivry that Nicola Tesla first came into my life. 
Tesla was a Montenegran, had received a fine 
education and had been employed in Budapest 
on telephone work. A Mr. Puskus, a Director 
of the Paris Edison Company, was interested in 
the Telephone Company of Budapest and 
brought Tesla to Paris. He was placed with me 
and it was my business to inform him in 
the electric lighting business. He progressed 
rapidly, and, in after years, became world- 
famous for his schemes and inventions. 

After the season closed at the Scala Theatre 
of Milan, (this Theatre only remained open for 
two months in the Winter of each year) the in- 
stallation I had placed in it was to be moved over 
to the Cafe Biffi in the Galleria Vittoria Eman- 
uele, the engine and dynamo which I had placed 
in the Royal Entrance to the Theatre were to 
remain where I placed them. I was at this time 
in Amsterdam and an engineer by name of 
Seuble was sent to Milan to make the change. 

72 



One day when in Brussels I received a telegram 
from the Paris office to report there prepared to 
go to Italy. I immediately took the train 
for Amsterdam, got together my effects, and 
returned through Brussels to Paris. Here I 
learned the lights in the Cafe Biffi had failed; 
why, no one knew. Having originally put the 
plant in the Scala, I was well acquainted with 
its details. I knew the field in the dynamo to 
be crooked and I suspected Seuble had over- 
loaded the dynamo, which had a capacity of 
sixty lamps. I reasoned the armature of the 
machine had been overheated, rubbed the field 
and stripped the wires off. There was in the 
Paris factory what was called a boring bar, for 
boring out the fields of dynamos, and I took this 
heavy piece of machinery with me in the passen- 
ger coach, over the Alps, into Italy. On arriv- 
ing in Milan, I found the dynamo just as I had 
expected, Seuble having overloaded it. I bored 
out the field, re-micaed the commutator, con- 
nected up the windings, and, I think, in three 
days had the lights going in the Cafe Biffi. I 

73 



was expected to return to Paris after the Italian 
interests were put in order. 

An Edison Company had been formed in 
Milan, with Professor Columbo as President. 
This Company wished me to remain with them 
and asked me to make them a proposition. If 
I remember correctly, I was then getting a 
salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per month 
from the Paris Company, and I told the Italian 
Company I would remain as their Engineer at 
a salary of three hundred dollars per month. 
They accepted my terms. When the news of my 
action reached Paris, a Mr. Baily, who was Man- 
aging Director of the Paris Company, wrote to 
me demanding that I sever my connections with 
the Milan Company, return to them the excess 
in salary I had received and return to the employ 
of the Paris Company. He also wrote Professor 
Columbo to discharge me. When this letter was 
received, I was installing a plant at Bergamo. 
I also had a letter from Professor Columbo in 
which he advised me to pay no attention to the 
requests of Mr. Baily. However, I wrote Mr. 
Baily that I would remain with the Italian Com- 

74 



pany. Shortly after this Professor Columbo 
went to Paris and from there to America with 
Mr. Baily. The following letter was written 
after Mr. Baily had boarded the steamer and 
mailed at Queenstown: 

"S. S. 'Arizona,' 5th Aug. '82. 
My dear Acheson : 

I was too busy to write you the last few days 
I was in Paris. Mr. Columbo is with me, as you 
know probably. Referring to your letter, you 
will find your interests advanced by following 
the counsel I give you, — to not think of treating 
on your own account. You have experience 
enough to understand that our Cie Continentale 
will always have more consideration with the 
Italian or any other company it may be allied 
with than you or any other individual can have. 
Do not try to go too fast, because at the end of 
six months from now you will not be so far ad- 
vanced as you would have been by using a little 
more patience. You must be content to grow 
with the affairs you are with and as it grows. 
Your path has widened out somewhat, as I told 
you it would, and it will continue to widen if 
you show yourself equal to the situations you 
are placed in, and do not make it impossible 
by impatience for those to serve you who would. 
You ought now to put yourself to instruct with 
all your might and cordially, the persons put 

75 



with you to learn, in making installations and 
running wires. You are disposed to be consti- 
pated on this I think, and don't let yourself out 
enough. It isn't what is in a man but what gets 
out that makes an impression on the world. 
The work I have spoken of above is your work 
for now, but if you act wisely you will have more 
important work two months hence. Try and 
make your mark to-day without fretting over 
to-morrow, and I think you will be surprised to 
find out how to-morrow will take care of itself. 
I hope you will take pride in advancing the 
interests of our Companies and you will find 
they will take care of you, and don't get into 
any side currents or by-ways. 

The above is dictated by a desire to advance 
you. Prof. Columbo and I without doubt shall 
talk of a good many things before we get back 
and you will not be forgotten. You can write 
me for a week out after you get this at 65 Fifth 
Avenue. Baily." 

I consider the criticism contained in this 
letter as unjust. The "future" Mr. Baily 
referred to was, I think, my being sent into Ger- 
many. I had introduced the light into Holland, 
Belgium and Italy, and superintended the con- 
struction of the lamp factory at Ivry-sur-Seine, 
France, and the prospects were for the early 

76 



introduction of the light into Germany, and the 
building of a lamp factory at Berlin. I was 
being made use of, and I was willing to serve 
the Company's interests, but I did not think I 
was being justly paid for what I was doing. 

The Italian Company bought an old theatre 
located in the center of the City and converted 
it into a central electric lighting station, the 
dynamos and engines and boilers being brought 
from America. I made frequent trips into 
neighboring cities and towns to install isolated 
plants. Among others I placed one in Udine to 
the northeast of Venice; one in Genoa; one in 
Pisa, within sight of the celebrated "Leaning 
Tower''; one in Bergamo; one upon the side of 
the Alps above Lake Maggiora. 

The necessity of getting all our supplies 
through the Paris Company and the strained 
relations between me and that office made it 
very unpleasant for me, and I decided to sever 
my connections with the Italian Company. I 
sent in my resignation, and, at the request of the 
President, remained until an Engineer, Mr. John 
Lieb, came over from New York to relieve me. 

77 



I believe I left the service of the Italian Com- 
pany about the beginning of the year 1883. I 
left Milan and returned to Paris, having been in 
Italy about seven months, and this without 
having seen Florence, Rome, Naples, or any of 
the Southern part. I had taken no holidays, 
following business closely. 

I arrived in Paris with some little money in 
my pocket and a number of ideas in my head to 
the effect that heat energy could be economi- 
cally converted into electrical energy. I estab- 
lished myself in a small hotel in Rue d'Auntin 
near the Avenue de 1' Opera. I had two adjoin- 
ing rooms, one as a bedroom, the other I made 
into sort of a laboratory and shop. I worked 
here under tremendous pressure for about five 
months, without meeting with any success. I 
ran out of money and cabled to my brother 
William. He responded with one thousand 
dollars. My health began to break and I was 
feeling miserable in every way. I resolved to 
go over to London; I do not remember that I 
had any particular object in view. I packed up 
my effects and crossed the Channel, going to the 

78 



Queens Hotel, London. The day after my 
arrival a most pronounced case of jaundice was 
developed throughout my system. I certainly 
was miserable. The hotel people evidently did 
not care to have me about and recommended 
to me a boarding house on Rittenhouse Square. 
I moved my effects to this house, which was con- 
ducted by a kindly old lady. I was feeling 
extremely sick, low spirited, money practically 
all gone and no doctor to attend me. One 
bright day I dragged myself out on the pave- 
ment in front of the house, in order to get the 
heat of the sun. I had been there some time 
when I recognized a familiar face in the passing 
throng. It was James Holloway, whom I had 
last seen as a machinist in the machine shops at 
Menlo Park. He was apparently pleased to see 
me. In a few minutes he learned my circum- 
stances and very kindly offered to take me to his 
home. He would not hear of a refusal. He 
gathered together my effects, I settled up with 
my landlady, and off we went to Hollo way's 
home on High Holborn. Jim, as I called him, 
had been sent some time previously to London,, 

79 



his former home, by Mr. Edison to assist in the 
introduction of the electric light. He had 
married, the second time, and was at the time 
I met him in charge of the electric lighting plant 
of the Holborn Restaurant, and was living 
nearby with his wife and his wife's mother. 

Holloway procured a doctor for me and he 
and his family gave me every attention of which 
their limited means permitted. I was extremely 
sick, although not actually confined to my bed. 
I do not know how long I was in this condition, 
but now think the turning point came with, or 
as the result of, the following incident. I 
could with some difficulty get out into the street 
and sun, and once when out was taken with an 
intense desire for bananas. I purchased one- 
half dozen at a nearby stand and smuggled them 
into my room and ate them all. In a few days I 
had recovered from all danger, and I learned 
from my friends that neither they nor the doctor 
had expected to see me get well. Did the ban- 
anas do it? 

After I was again well, Holloway became 
interested in my experiments on the conversion 

80 



of heat energy into electricity, and introduced 
me to Mr. Gordon, who was at the head of the 
restaurant on High Holborn and the collection 
of great hotels known as the "Gordon Hotels." 
Mr. Gordon and a brother-in-law together fur- 
nished me with capital for once more taking up 
my line of experiments, and these were con- 
tinued without success until well into Decem- 
ber, 1883, when I learned that Mr. Samuel Insull, 
Mr. Edison's private secretary, was in London 
at a certain hotel. I had known Insull at Menlo 
Park, and called to see him and related my cir- 
cumstances. He cabled to Edison in New York 
and received in reply cabled instructions to 
furnish me with transportation to America. I 
returned to America on the S. S. ' 'Arizona, " 
landing in New York on the fourth day of Jan- 
uary, 1884. My roving about had given me 
considerable self-reliance, or what is popularly 
called "nerve," as is illustrated by this incident: 
I came over from England as a first-class pas- 
senger on a ticket furnished by Mr. Insull. I 
was completely out of money, and when we 
fastened to the pier in the North River, New 

81 



York, I went down to my state room to have my 
baggage brought up and found the door locked. 
This may have been for some other reason, but 
I thought the steward had locked it up so I could 
not move out until I had given him a tip. I 
went up on deck, out on the pier and at a car- 
riage stand engaged a carriage to take me and 
my baggage to a family hotel on Eleventh Street. 
I asked the officer in charge of the stand to loan 
me five dollars in United States money until I 
arrived at the hotel. He at once handed me the 
money and I went down, tipped the steward, got 
my effects, drove to the hotel, went in, registered 
as coming from London, England, asked the 
hotel clerk to accommodate me with a few 
dollars United States money, which he did. I 
paid my debt and transportation to the cabman, 
and found myself once more settled in America 
after two and one-half years of strenuous life 
in Europe. 



82 



CHAPTER VIII 

TWENTY-EIGHTH TO THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR 

The following day I reported to Mr. Edison's 
office at No. 65 Fifth Avenue. Mr. Edison 
was in Florida, but he had left word that I 
was to take up a line of experiments at his lab- 
oratory, which was then in New York City. The 
Edison Electric Light Company was at this time 
about to commence the construction of an up- 
town central station, the Pearl Street Station 
having proven a success. A few days after I 
commenced work at the laboratory, I was 
informed that Mr. Edison had telegraphed from 
Florida that he wished me to take the position 
of Engineer of the proposed new central station. 
I did not consider myself capable for this respon- 
sible position. Much progress had been made 
during the preceding two years, and my work 
in Europe had not kept me in close touch with 
the advance. I did not think the position pro- 
posed by Edison would be congenial to me, and 

83 



I am inclined to think Edison was not accur- 
ately estimating my capacity, qualifications 
and tastes. I declined to take the position and 
remained for some time in the laboratory until 
a scheme for controlling electric currents, regu- 
lating dynamos, etc., occurred to me and carried 
me once more into experimental work, which 
resulted in my again leaving Edison's interests. 
My experiments proved a failure, and then 
through the kindness of Mr. Samuel Mott, I was 
introduced to Captain Gardner of the Consoli- 
dated Electric Light Company, a concern own- 
ing the Sawyer-Man patents on electric lamps. 
They had a small lamp and dynamo factory in 
Brooklyn. From Captain Gardner I obtained 
an appointment as Superintendent of the lamp 
department of their factory, a Mr. Edward R. 
Knowles being General Superintendent. 

I now entered upon, perhaps, the most im- 
portant period of my life. The lamp factory 
was a very small affair occupying the third floor 
of a power building. I was paid twenty-five 
dollars per week at the beginning of my employ- 
ment, but owing to the economies I introduced 

84 



and the increased output, this was soon increased 
to thirty-five dollars. After I had been there 
some time, the company of which a Mr. Thayer 
of Boston was President, undertook a reduction 
of expenses and re-organization. Mr. Knowles 
was relieved of his position, and Mr. Thayer 
wished me to take the General Superintendency, 
with my salary reduced again to twenty-five 
dollars per week. I objected to this arrangement 
and left the employ of the Company. 

For some time I had been much in love with 
a Miss Margaret C. Maher, and I, a world- 
wanderer, at this critical time when I was out 
of a position and practically penniless, proposed 
marriage to her, and she, with evident confi- 
dence in my ability to provide for her, accepted 
me as her partner for life. 

Miss Maher, having been raised in the 
Catholic faith, desired to be married, in that 
church, and we were married by the Rev. W. 
Keegan in the Church of the Assumption, 
Brooklyn, N. Y., December 15th, 1884. 

While with the Consolidated Electric Light 
Company, I had met and become acquainted 

85 



with Mr. William P. Shinn, who was one of the 
Directors of the Company. I had also met 
another Director, Mr. W. C. Andrews, who was 
also President of the New York Steam Heating 
Company, Mr. Shinn being Vice-President of 
that Company. I had a project for the con- 
struction of a new style of dynamo, and went 
to see these two gentlemen about it. At that 
time I was a great student of Faraday's works, 
and I took with me to Mr. Shinn's office one 
of the books of Faraday's, "Experimental 
Researches in Electricity," and showed to Mr. 
Shinn why I thought from Faraday's results my 
plan would prove practical. 

Mr. Shinn and Mr. Andrews concluded to go 
into the project, each of us holding a third 
interest. Quite a large machine was built in 
the shops of the Steam Heating Company on 
Eighteenth Street, New York. My wife and I 
moved from Brooklyn, where we had been 
boarding on Jay Street, to a boarding house on 
Eighteenth Street, New York. 

The dynamo we built was a failure, for while 
it would produce a current of immense amper- 

86 



age, the voltage was absurdly low. It was 
another failure added to my long list. 

Just at this critical moment I chanced to 
meet one day on Broadway, at the corner of 
Eighteenth Street, John S. Huyler, whom I 
had not seen since the days of the Exposition 
in Paris, back in 1 88 1. I think we were both 
delighted to meet, having formed an attach- 
ment on the S. S. "Amerique" in going to 
France. 

We exchanged news hurriedly of what had 
happened to each since we parted. Huyler con- 
ducted me to his confectionery store nearby at 
No. 863 Broadway, and told me he was inter- 
ested in a plant over on Hudson Street, in which 
a Mr. Clark was conducting experiments on the 
manufacture of insulated wire for electric work. 
He said he had then expended a great many 
thousands of dollars, and was slowly forming the 
opinion that the whole thing was no good. He 
wanted me to join forces with him, and either 
carry it to a success or call it off. I told him 
how I was situated, and could not leave the 
gentlemen I was with in the lurch. He said he 

87 



would buy them out ; I told him my venture was 
a failure. He insisted, and together we went 
down to Mr. Shinn's office at No. 22 Cortlandt 
Street. 

The sale and purchase was completed, Mr. 
Huyler paying to Messrs. Andrews and Shinn 
twelve hundred and some odd dollars and cents, 
the exact amount expended in building the 
machine and paying me a salary of twenty-five 
dollars per week. 

Huyler took me over into his employ, paying 
me twenty-five dollars per week. The dynamo 
I had built was moved from the shop of the 
Steam Heating Company and placed in a sub- 
cellar of a power building on Hudson Street, in 
which Mr. Clark had his wire insulating plant. 
I moved my wife from the boarding house on 
Eighteenth Street to a private flat on One 
Hundred and Twenty-fourth Street occupied by 
my friend Mr. Samuel Mott, he and his family 
going for a trip of some duration into the 
country. 

I set myself earnestly at work upon Mr. 
Huyler's problem, and ere long convinced my- 



self, him and others interested, that their wire 
insulating project was worthless, and in course 
of time the plant was shut down. 

I now induced Huyler to lend his aid to some 
experiments I wished to make on the production 
of an anti-induction telephone wire, using the 
dynamo in the sub-cellar. He consented, and 
on a salary of fifteen dollars per week which he 
paid me, I worked for weeks in this room, two 
floors underground. My project was to take 
a rubber-covered wire, coat it with graphite, 
pass it through a copper solution and plate on 
it a tube of copper; next braid cotton over the 
tube; then soak the cotton with asphaltum; 
then cover the whole with a lead pipe or cover- 
ing. I made up some in this manner, but they 
only served as samples. The scheme was good, 
the central wire and surrounding insulated tube 
of copper acting as the two conductors for a tele- 
phone circuit, their relative positions to each 
other entirely eliminating cross-talk and induc- 
tion. I took out patents on the process of 
making this wire. 

While I was engaged on this work, our 

8 9 



daughter Veronica Belle was born, and shortly 
afterward Mr. Mott returned to town, and I 
moved my family into a flat on Forty-third 
Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. 
I cannot say I then looked upon life as a bed 
of roses, — with an income of fifteen dollars per 
week, a rent of thirty dollars per month to pay, 
and three people to clothe and feed. The sub- 
cellar was an abominable place in which to 
work, and I can now remember that I usually 
left there, after a day's work, cold and almost 
numb from my feet to the waist. Had I not 
had a remarkable constitution, I do not think 
I could have survived this period, and, indeed, 
it is possible that some of the loss of health I 
afterwards experienced for some years, may be 
charged to my struggles at that time. 

Things were looking rather desperate when 
my brother William, who was still living at 
Monticello, which had been renamed Gosford, 
came to New York and wished me to go out to 
Gosford and conduct some experiments on the 
reduction of iron from its ores by the use of 
natural gas, which was then quite plentiful in 

90 



that vicinity. My work with the wire not being 
very encouraging, Mr. Huyler assented to my 
going. 

I moved my wife and child to Gosford, and 
we were provided with accommodations in my 
brother's house, with his family. Experiments 
were undertaken, but they were unsuccessful 
and disappointing. I would mention one little 
incident that occurred while at work, which had 
a bearing on my after acts. I passed natural 
gas into a highly heated furnace in which I had 
placed some clay articles, and, when cold, I 
found them thoroughly impregnated with car- 
bon, and I thought they were rendered harder. 
Things came to a standstill for want of capital, 
and I again turned my thoughts to my anti- 
induction telephone wire. I made a trip to 
Pittsburgh to see Mr. R. S. Waring, President 
of the Standard Underground Cable Company, 
with the hope of interesting him. I opened 
negotiations with him for the sale of my patent. 
In the meantime, I moved my family to a board- 
ing-house in Kittanning, a town three miles 
down the Allegheny River from Gosford. It 

9i 



was about forty-four miles from Kittanning to 
Pittsburgh. 

I was out of money completely, and I saw 
time would pass in the selling of my patent. 
I pawned my watch-chain and bought a monthly 
ticket between Kittanning and Pittsburgh, and 
made daily trips to the City. I soon learned 
that Mr. George Westinghouse was negotiating 
with Mr. Waring to get control of the Cable 
Company. I went to see Mr. Westinghouse, 
and proposed to sell him my patent. The nego- 
tiations between Westinghouse and Waring 
came to a finish, the latter selling his interest in 
the Cable Company to the former. 

Mr. Westinghouse bought my patent in the 
interest of the Cable Company, paying me 
seven thousand dollars in cash and fifty thou- 
sand dollars of the stock of the Standard Under- 
ground Cable Company, which was then cap- 
italized at three million dollars, and engaged 
me for a term of three years as electrician to the 
Cable Company, at a salary, I think, of two 
thousand dollars per year. I paid over to Mr. 
Huyler five thousand dollars to reimburse him 

92 



for any expenses incurred on my account, and 
to my brother I paid two thousand dollars 
against his expenses. Before my monthly ticket 
expired, I was settled. 

This was late in 1886. I now moved my 
family to Pittsburgh, and went to housekeeping. 
I am afraid my new riches made me reckless, 
but I wished my wife to be as comfortable as 
possible. I furnished our home as well as I 
thought we could afford, bought a cow, a horse 
and carriage, engaged a man to attend the barn 
and drive, all of which was beyond my means. 
The capital of the Cable Company was reduced 
from its three million dollars to one million 
dollars, thereby reducing my stock to sixteen 
thousand, six hundred and sixty-six dollars. 

I found the work with the Cable Company 
very agreeable. I made trips to other cities to 
superintend the laying of cables underground, 
or investigate troubles that would arise; thus I 
did work in New York City, Philadelphia, Chi- 
cago, Detroit, Washington City and Buffalo. 
While holding this position, I made my first 
appearance as the author of a paper before an 

93 



audience, and followed it with a number of 
others. 

When the three years expired, I formed a 
syndicate of gentlemen, among whom was the 
late Christopher Magee of Pittsburgh, and again 
took up experiments on the conversion of heat 
energy into electricity. We rented an aban- 
doned electric railway power house in Allegheny 
City. Here I worked for several months with 
indifferent success. In the Fall of 1890, I 
thought that with a small electric lighting plant 
in some town, I could make the plant pay its 
way by night lighting, and use the dynamo for 
experiments during the day. I looked about 
for a suitable location, and decided on Monon- 
gahela City, thirty miles from Pittsburgh on the 
Monongahela River. 

Mr. Magee and the majority of the members 
of my syndicate declined to go into the light 
company. I got together another party of 
gentlemen, among whom was my friend John 
S. Huyler, and Joseph W. Marsh, Secretary of 
the Standard Underground Cable Company. 

The Monongahela Electric Light Company 

94 



was organized and incorporated for forty thou- 
sand dollars, a suitable building purchased, and 
the necessary engines, dynamos, etc., installed. 
The Company commenced to furnish light to its 
customers on the 20th day of November, 1890. 
I now arranged to move my family to Mon- 
ongahela City, it having increased on January 
25th, 1887, by the birth of our son, Edward 
Goodrich; again, on September 8th, 1888, by 
the birth of our son Raymond Maher ; and again, 
on May 14th, 1890, by the birth of our daughter 
Sarah Ruth. I bought a small house, paying 
for it in part with a mortgage, and moved my 
family from Roupe Street, Pittsburgh, where 
they then lived. If I remember rightly, the 
purchase of this house, which I gave to my wife, 
and settling my family in it, exhausted what was 
left of the sixteen thousand, six hundred and 
sixty-six dollars worth of cable stock. I closed 
out the indebtedness I had incurred in the 
Second National Bank of Allegheny by selling 
and assigning the Cable Company's stock owned 
by me, to Mr. J. N. Davidson, President of the 
Bank. 

95 



After I was located and all the capital I could 
raise invested, I realized that electric lighting in 
a small town was no play. Monongahela City 
had a gas plant, owned by the two local banks. 
My plant was not meeting expenses, and not 
being able to get the assistance of the town's 
local paper, conducted by ' 'Chill" Hazzard, I 
resolved on a determined effort. The town was 
entirely in the hands of the Republican Party; 
I myself was of that persuasion. I had hand 
bills printed immediately preceding a town 
election; had boys carry them about the town 
and push them under the house doors. The 
election came off, the Town went Democratic, 
and electric lights were put on the streets. 



9 6 



CHAPTER IX 

DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT OF 
CARBORUNDUM 

I did quite a great deal of experimenting 
during the Winter on various lines. I think it 
was in February, 1891, I was working on the 
making of rubber synthetically. I succeeded 
in producing a small piece, when at this critical 
moment Mr. John S. Huyler came from New 
York to see our plant. He was not pleased with 
the prospects. He looked on it with great dis- 
favor, and said he had just invested consider- 
able money in a rubber tree grove in Mexico, and 
they intended to produce more rubber than the 
World would use. He advised me to shut the 
plant up and ' 'throw it into the Monongahela 
River." With this, he left me to my own 
resources. His remarks discouraged me regarding 
rubber; I dropped the subject and resolved 
to endeavor to produce an artificial abrasive. 
Through inexcusable negligence or careless- 

97 



ness, I made no record of my experiments 
on rubber production, and have to-day but 
a hazy idea of how I produced this small 
sample. 

The value of a good abrasive was brought 
to my attention by a remark incidentally made 
in 1880 by Dr. George F. Kunz of Tiffany & 
Company, New York. I also remembered the 
observation of clay impregnated with carbon I 
made at Gosford, and I decided to make 
experiments on impregnating clay with carbon 
under the influence of electric heat. 

An iron bowl, such as plumbers use for hold- 
ing their melted solder, was attached to one 
lead from a dynamo and filled with a mixture 
of clay and powdered coke, the end of an arc 
light carbon attached to the other lead was 
inserted into the mixture. The percentage of 
coke was high enough to carry a current, and a 
good strong one was passed through the mixture 
between the lamp carbon and bowl until the 
clay in the center was melted and heated to a 
very high temperature. When cold, the mass 
was examined. It did not fill my expectations, 

98 



but I, by sheer chance, happened to notice a 
few bright specks on the end of the arc carbon 
that had been in the mixture. I placed one on 
the end of a lead pencil and drew it across a pane 
of glass. It cut the glass like a diamond. I 
repeated the experiment, and collected enough 
of the material to test its abrasive qualities. I 
mounted an iron disc in a lathe, and, oiling its 
surface, applied the material which adhered, 
and with this revolving disc I cut the polished 
face off the diamond in a finger ring still owned 
and worn by me. 

I now made a small furnace of bricks, and 
after much and patient work, had what I con- 
sidered enough to take to the lapidaries in New 
York City. 

A friend by the name of W. C. McCallister, 
a druggist of Monongahela, and I started for 
New York. On the way we coined a name for 
my new and, as yet, unnamed material. Under 
the impression, without any chemical analysis, 
that it was composed of carbon and corundum, 
I called it Carborundum. 

Owing to unforeseen circumstances, I found 

99 



it necessary to return to Monongahela City with- 
out having presented the subject of Carborun- 
dum to anyone who might be interested in it 
in New York City. A few days later I returned 
to New York with my new material, which was 
contained in a little vial. I had a diamond 
cutter on John Street use some of my product to 
repolish the diamond I had ground, and the 
remainder he bought from me at forty cents per 
carat, or approximately eight hundred dollars 
per pound, and with the proceeds I purchased a 
microscope to help me in studying the structure 
of Carborundum. 

A great deal of time and energy were 
expended in an effort to develop a trade with 
the Lapidaries, but the consumption of abrasives 
in this line was small, and mainly covered by 
the refuse matter from diamond cuttings and 
chippings. 

I gradually increased the size of my furnace 
and sent samples to various emery wheel manu- 
facturers to be made into small wheels. With- 
out exception, these companies reported that 
it was not possible to make the material up into 

ioo 



successful wheels. Not discouraged, I under- 
took experiments on these lines. 

I organized The Carborundum Company, and 
incorporated it for one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars on the 21st day of September, 1891. 
One-third of the capital stock was issued to the 
stockholders of the Monongahela Electric Light 
Company in compensation for the services that 
The Carborundum Company had received from 
the Light Company. 

A new field opened up at this opportune 
moment for Carborundum. Mr. George West- 
inghouse had secured the contract for lighting 
the Columbian Exposition buildings in Chicago, 
the Exposition was to be held in 1893. The 
Edison Electric Light interest secured an in- 
junction, restraining Westinghouse from making 
a lamp of one piece of glass; Westinghouse de- 
vised a lamp made of two pieces, fitted together 
with a ground joint as a stopper fits into a bottle. 
He found small Carborundum wheels to be the 
most efficient means for grinding the joint 
between these two pieces. I made with my own 
hands some sixty thousand small wheels for this 



101 



work, and received from the Westinghouse 
Electric and Manufacturing Company over seven 
thousand dollars for them. With this money, 
The Carborundum Company bought its first 
dynamo; its electric current up to that time 
having been furnished from the dynamos of the 
Monongahela Electric Light Company. 

I think it was in January, 1893, I sent out 
twelve thousand lithographed cards to that 
number of dentists. In one corner I punched 
a hole one-half inch in diameter, and in it I 
placed a Carborundum wheel of that diameter, 
and one-sixteenth of an inch thick. The cards 
being made of soft, heavy paper, the wheels 
were held firmly. On one side of the card were 
lithographed the words: "The Compliments of 
the Season and a Carborundum Wheel. Try 
me wet or dry;" on the reverse side was a price 
list. By return mail I received sufficient orders 
and money to pay for the cards, wheels and 
postage. These wheels I had made myself. 

I had two small kilns built, and went earn- 
estly to work to make a high grade vitrified 
wheel. The success of these wheels caused Mr. 

102 



Lee S. Smith of Pittsburgh, who was in the 
dental supply business, and whom I had en- 
deavored formerly to interest in Carborundum 
dental goods, to wish the sole agency for the 
product. He placed an order for five thousand 
dollars worth of wheels and points, and with 
this money, the Carborundum Company made 
an exhibit at the Chicago Exposition, and 
much attention was attracted to the material. 
As a result of this exhibit, I sold, before the 
close of the year 1893, through a Mr. Wissen- 
burger, to an Austrian Bank (known as the 
Landerbank of Vienna) my patents for Austria- 
Hungary, receiving for the sale twenty thousand 
dollars. 

I should have stated earlier, that some 
months after the discovery of Carborundum, I 
learned from analyses I had made that it was 
a compound of carbon and silicon, and not 
alumina, the formula being S i C. 

Early in the year 1894, 1 went over to Europe 
to work my patents in France, taking with me 
an engineer by the name of Frederick Boiling, 
a German who had been in America for some 

103 



years. I operated a furnace and made Carbor- 
undum in the electric plant at Ivry-sur-Seine, 
where I had worked twelve years before. 

A Mr. Deichmann, to whom I had given the 
right to handle my German patents, came down 
to Paris from Berlin, and informed me that he 
had formed a syndicate of millionaires who 
were ready to organize a company and buy my 
German patents. Their headquarters were at 
Iserlohn, Westphalia. 

Mr. Boiling and I went with Mr. Deichmann 
up to Iserlohn, and I was entertained at the 
home (called a castle) of Mr. Hebers, a very 
wealthy man and a member of the Prussian 
Diet. I think I was there about a week, and I 
cannot praise too highly the hospitality extended 
to me. One day I received a telegram asking 
me to meet a Dr. Rapporport, a representative 
of the Landerbank of Vienna, in Paris. I 
answered that I would receive him at eleven 
o'clock on a certain day, at the Hotel Conti- 
nental, Paris. This hurried up my German 
friends, and a meeting was convened in the ball- 
room of the castle, at which all the members of 

104 



the proposed Deutsch Carborundum Werke 
were present. A corporation lawyer had been 
brought for the occasion from the City of 
Dortmund. 

Instead of making a contract between the 
proposed company and myself, as I had 
expected, the day was spent in forming and 
executing a power of attorney from me to Mr. 
Deichmann. Under this power, he was to enter 
into a contract to sell the patents for sixty 
thousand dollars, twenty of which should be in 
cash, and forty in stock of the proposed 
company. 

In drawing up the power of attorney, the 
German gentlemen wished to have embodied in 
it an agreement on my part that Mr. Deichmann 
should contract with the German company that 
they should not make less than four per cent, on 
the company's capital. I refused to agree to 
such a guarantee, as I would not be the manager 
of the company, and all of the gentlemen were 
perfectly cognizant of my refusal. 

After the day's work was over and the power 
of attorney duly signed, an elaborate banquet 

105 



was served. I was to meet Dr. Rapporport 
the next morning in Paris. The last train had 
left Iserlohn, and I was driven twelve miles in 
Mr. Heber's family coach to Hagen, on the 
main line to Paris. The next morning at 
exactly eleven o'clock, Dr. Rapporport called 
on me and stated that the Landerbank wished 
to secure more territory, and he was authorized 
to negotiate for the German patent. He further 
stated that they would pay me sixty thousand 
dollars cash for it. I had to tell him that it was 
too late, as I had sold it the previous day. 

Within the next few days, I sold the Lander- 
bank my patent interests in France, Belgium, 
Switzerland, Italy, and a pending application in 
Russia, for the sum of sixty thousand dollars 
cash. 

In the Fall of that year, I received at Mon- 
ongahela City, from Mr. Deichmann, a booklet 
containing a copy of the contract he had made, 
as my attorney, with the Deutsch Carborun- 
dum Werke, the By-Laws of the Company, etc., 
and a long letter explaining why, in his judg- 
ment, he thought it was wise to sign the contract 

106 



with its Fifth Clause agreeing that I guarantee 
the Company to earn four per cent, on its capital. 
The Company had already paid me ten thou- 
sand dollars, fifteen hundred of which I had 
paid over to Deichmann as his commission. On 
receiving his letter and booklet, I cabled over 
canceling the entire affair, later repaying to the 
defunct company the ten thousand dollars. 
I have gone thus fully into this transaction to 
illustrate how one may, by a narrow margin, 
miss the opportunity to accept a good offer, i. e. , 
the offer of the Landerbank. 

My business having been completed in 
Europe, I returned home by way of London, 
where I wished to find my old friend Holloway. 
After quite a search, I found him living in the 
outer part of London. He was out of a position, 
and confined to bed with an attack of lumbago. 
I had the pleasure of reciprocating, in part, his 
former great kindness to me. 

When in Mr. Holloway's home I noticed an 
old-fashioned Grandfather's Clock, and on 
inquiry was told that it had formerly been the 
property of Michael Faraday. Mrs. Holloway's 

107 



mother had known Faraday personally, and knew 
this clock to have been in his possession. A few 
months after returning to America, I received 
by express this same clock, as a present from 
Mrs. Hollo way, and it now stands in my home 
in Lundy's Lane, Niagara Falls. 

On my return home from Europe, I heard 
much of the electrical development at Niagara 
Falls, and going there, looked over the prospects 
for success of the development, prices for power, 
etc. On returning to Monongahela City, I con- 
vened a meeting of my Board of Directors, and 
laid before them a plan of moving to Niagara 
Falls, and there build and equip a plant for one 
thousand horse power. At this time the Mon- 
ongahela plant used one hundred and thirty- 
four horse power, and, owing to the high price 
of the Carborundum produced, but one-half the 
production was sold. In view of this condition 
of the plant at Monongahela City, my Niagara 
Falls scheme was too much for the conservative 
Directors, and they resigned and left the room. 
Fortunately for the future of Carborundum, I 
was in control of its destiny. I organized a new 

1 08 



board; had the Company authorize the issue of 
seventy-five thousand dollars worth of bonds; 
placed the money I had brought from Europe 
(with the exception of twenty-six thousand 
dollars which I paid to Mr. J. S. Huyler for his 
interests, he being dissatisfied with my policy) 
at the service of the Company. 

Contracts were entered into with the Niagara 
Falls Power Company. Substantial brick build- 
ings were erected and provision made for large 
development. My means began to run low, 
and it was necessary to raise more. Times were 
depressed, all business being at a standstill. I 
made a great struggle to sell the Company's 
bonds. The Company had no funds to place 
the necessary machinery in the new buildings. 
Finally, on the sixth day of July, 1895, I sold 
to Pittsburgh Bankers, whom I shall hereafter 
designate "A" and "B", fifty thousand dollars 
of the bonds, giving them as a bonus twelve 
thousand, five hundred dollars of the Com- 
pany's capital stock, which had previously been 
raised to two hundred thousand dollars. 

The Niagara Falls works were started in the 

109 



Fall of 1895, it being the second one to take 
power from the Niagara Falls Power Company, 
— the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, now the 
Aluminum Company of America, being the first. 

The emery wheel companies would not buy 
the Carborundum, and it became necessary for 
me to devise and perfect a method of making 
wheels; to build a department for that work, 
and carry a stock of finished wheels. All this 
required time and much money. 

In order to be nearer my work at Niagara 
Falls, I leased the premises No. 41 Fargo Ave- 
nue, Buffalo, N. Y., on the 5th day of August, 

1896, and moved my family there from Monon- 
gahela City. My family now consisted of my 
wife and seven children; George Wilson, John 
Huyler and Margaret Irene having been born 
March 2nd, 1892, October 31st, 1893, and June 
10th, 1896, respectively. 

Under the patent laws of Germany, it was 
necessary for me to work my patents in that 
country early in 1897. I entered into a con- 
tract with "A" and "B" under date of April 13th, 

1897, whereby they secured a one-half interest in 

no 



the German patent in consideration of fifty- 
five hundred dollars. They advanced the 
money to carry out the working and put the 
business into shape. 

I now entered upon the most trying period 
of my checkered career. I left for Germany, 
taking with me my old friend, James C. Hippie, 
to assist me in my work. 

I took with me a letter of credit from "A" 
and "B" for twenty-five thousand dollars, and, 
with Hippie to assist me, operated furnaces and 
made Carborundum in the town of Dauben, a 
few miles from Dresden. The necessary elec- 
tricity was obtained from the town's electric 
lighting station. 

In Dauben was an emery wheel firm by the 
name of George Voss & Company, and I closed 
a contract with them to continue operating the 
small plant I had built, and to purchase from 
the American Company about twelve thousand 
dollars worth of Carborundum goods, as a stock 
for the German trade. 

I left Hippie there and returned home, hav- 
ing been gone about three months and expended 



in 



two thousand five hundred dollars of the 
twenty-five thousand dollars taken over. One 
half of my expenditures were met by me, the 
other half by "A" and "B." 

The last department of manufacture added 
to the Niagara Falls plant was made after my 
return from Europe. It was the manufacture 
of Carborundum paper and cloth. I had had a 
number of emery paper manufacturers make 
some, and I believed it would be a valuable 
addition to our Works. To raise the required 
fifty thousand dollars for this department, I 
gave "A" and "B" forty-six thousand dollars of 
the capital stock of the Company as a bonus for 
their loaning the money to the Company. The 
capital of the company was at that time three 
hundred thousand dollars, having been raised 
from its former two hundred thousand dollars 
for the purpose of buying the Canadian patents 
from me, I giving to "A" and "B" three-fourths, 
— or seventy-five thousand dollars of the one 
hundred thousand dollar purchase price. 

"A" and "B" were now in control, I having 
given them as bonuses for the advancement of 

112 



money to the Company forty-six and fifty-eight 
hundredths per cent, of its total capital stock, 
to which they added by purchase from other 
stockholders enough to increase their holdings 
beyond the half. Their advancements to the 
Company were all in the form of personal notes 
at six per cent. 

Shortly after they obtained control, they de- 
manded the retirement of the Secretary and the 
Treasurer, Mr. William H. Arison and Mr. H. 
H. Williams, and put in their places Mr. F. W. 
Haskell and Mr. F. H. Manley. 

One evening in August, 1898, I left my home 
on Fargo Avenue to take the eleven o'clock train 
for Pittsburgh, for one of my frequent inter- 
views with "A" and "B." Within five hundred 
feet of my house door, I was garotted by three 
men and knocked insensible by being struck 
twice on my head. I recovered quickly, and 
found I had been robbed of my watch and chain, 
further depredations being prevented by the 
approach of persons on the street. 

Toward the close of the year, I was taken 
seriously ill, due, I think, to the many trying 

i J 3 



circumstances in which I had been placed, and 
the knowledge that it was the purpose of. "A" 
and "B" to remove me from the Presidency of 
The Carborundum Company, Mr. Haskell hav- 
ing already been, at their instigation, placed in 
practical control. I was confined to my bed 
for five weeks, my mind being so affected that I 
was for two weeks in an unconscious condition. 

On July ist, 1901, Mr. F. W. Haskell was 
made President of The Carborundum Company, 
I having been removed by "A" and "B" from 
that position. The business of the Company 
was then on a fine basis, being ready to enter 
upon a period of great prosperity, but no profits 
had yet been made. I had created an entirely 
new industry, worked out and patented the 
many details of manufacture, created a stock to 
supply demands from the trade, proved the value 
of Carborundum as an abrasive and established 
a demand for the same, and all this while the 
country was passing through a great financial 
depression. 

On January ist, 19 10, the Company was 
using ten thousand electrical horse power, and 

114 



was producing Carborundum at the rate of ten 
million pounds per year, the capital of the Com- 
pany having been increased to six hundred 
thousand dollars. 



"5 



CHAPTER X 
GRAPHITE 

In 1895, 1 secured a United States Patent for 
purifying carbon. In 1896, I obtained a United 
States Patent on the manufacture of graphite. 
On the 17th day of January, 1899, I secured 
still another one in this series i. e., on the 
manufacture of graphite articles. 

Realizing that I was completely out of power 
in The Carborundum Company, and knowing 
the necessity of accomplishing something for 
my family, I concluded to form a Graphite 
Company to operate my patents. 

I told "A" and "B" of my purpose, and they 
immediately demanded forty per cent, of the 
stock of the proposed company under an old 
agreement made between them and myself on 
July 16th, 1896, whereby it was proposed to 
organize a Carbon Company, they ("A" and 
"B") furnishing the capital. This was never 
carried out, and I thought all parties had aban- 

116 



doned their claims under it, "A" and "B" not 
having expended one cent. I objected to their 
claim for forty per cent, but nevertheless it was 
clear to me that if I did not pay them tribute 
under that old contract, I might have difficulty 
in securing capital for my proposed enterprise. 
We compromised by my agreeing to present 
them with twenty-five per cent, of the capital 
stock of my new company. 

I proceeded with my plans and organized 
the Acheson Graphite Company, with one million 
dollars capitalization. It was incorporated 
under the laws of the State of New Jersey on 
January 26th, 1899. I sold one hundred thou- 
sand dollars preferred stock of the Company, 
and with this money developed the business. 

The Company leased suitable ground from 
the Niagara Falls Power Company, and con- 
tracted for one thousand horse power of 
electricity. 

During February and March, 1900, I filed 
applications for patents on Graphite manufacture 
in England, France, Belgium, Germany, Aus- 
tria, Italy, Spain and Russia. I then organized 

117 



a company under the title, of International 
Acheson Graphite Company with a capitaliza- 
tion of three million dollars to operate these 
patents in Europe. It was incorporated under 
the laws of the State of New Jersey, March 1 5th, 
1900. 

I found it inconvenient to live in Buffalo and 
spend so much time on the railway, and wished to 
provide my family with a permanent home, and 
having an opportunity in 1900 to buy a property 
of twenty-one acres on Lundy's Lane, Niagara 
Falls, Ontario, I purchased it. To provide the 
money to purchase, improve and furnish it, I 
sold to "A" and "B" thirty-five thousand dol- 
lars worth of my Carborundum stock, and with 
the proceeds, which amounted to thirty-five 
thousand dollars, I settled my family at Lundy's 
Lane. The property, home and contents I pre- 
sented to my wife. 

My family had, while living in Buffalo, been 
further increased by the birth of our daughter, 
Jean Ellen, on November 16th, 1898, and 
Howard Archibald on April 1st, 1900. When I 
moved my family from Buffalo to Lundy's Lane, 

118 






we numbered eleven all told, — my wife and I 
with five sons and four daughters. 

The graphite articles, as made by the Ache- 
son Graphite Company, such as electrodes, 
plates for motor and dynamo brushes, bulk 
graphite for dry batteries and paint pigment, 
seemed to fill at once a much needed require- 
ment, and the business of the Company grew 
accordingly. A plant was built and equipped 
with one thousand horse power of electricity. 

Believing that it would be to the best inter- 
ests of all concerned to merge the two Graphite 
Companies under the title and with the capi- 
talization of the International Company, I 
called the necessary meetings to act on it, and an 
agreement was executed between them under 
date of May ist, 1900. 

"A" and "B" opposed the merger and went 
into the New Jersey Court of Chancery on June 
27th, 1900, for an injunction restraining the 
Companies from merging. I retained Mr. J. B. 
Dill to defend the Graphite Company's interests, 
and, after hearing the case, Judge Emery handed 
down a decision and order under date of July 

119 



2oth, 1900, granting a preliminary injunction 
so worded as to indicate that, on final hearing, 
permission to complete the merger might be 
granted by the Court. 

"A" and "B" thereupon approached me for 
a compromise. This was arrived at on the follow- 
ing basis. I agreed to have issued to them the 
amount of stock due them under the merger or 
one-twelfth plus one-half the difference between 
the twelfth and their original fourth or one-sixth, 
they agreeing to convert The Carborundum Com- 
pany's notes held by them into twenty-year 
bonds, doubling the capital of the Company to 
permit of so large an issue, the new stock to be 
issued to the stockholders pro rata with their hold- 
ings ; to have The Carborundum Company begin 
paying dividends; to have The Carborundum 
Company employ me as Consulting Engineer for 
five years at a salary of five thousand dollars 
per year. These conditions being mutually 
agreed to, the merger was completed. 

My health was very bad in 1902. I was 
worried over the disconnected state of my 
affairs. I then was possessed of about twenty- 



120 



two per cent, of the capital stock of The Car- 
borundum Company, seventy-two per cent, of 
the International Acheson Graphite Company, 
and some other scattered interests. I con- 
ceived the idea of forming an incorporated com- 
pany of my family, and dividing its stock 
amongst my wife and children, and, as a result, 
I incorporated on January 5th, 1903, under the 
laws of New Jersey, The Acheson Company, 
with authorized capital of ten thousand dollars 
divided into one hundred shares. Of these one 
hundred shares I gave to my wife thirty-four, 
retaining the remainder in the interests of my 
children. To The Acheson Company I trans- 
ferred all my holdings. 

Owing to severe stomach troubles and an 
operation thereon, I was entirely unfit to attend 
to business from the early Spring of 1903 to the 
Fall of 1905, and was absent from home much 
of this period. 

I again assumed the responsibilities of my 
office, which was that of President, in the late 
Fall of 1905. I practically reorganized the 
official staff and management of the Company 

1.2 1 



and it at once entered upon a period of great 
prosperity. 

By the first of January, 1910, the Company's 
plant was using five thousand electrical horse 
power in its furnaces and the amount of graphite 
being produced was at the rate of more than ten 
millions of pounds per year. 



122 



CHAPTER XI 

EGYPTIANIZED CLAY; DIRECT REDUCTION OF 

ALUMINUM AND SILICON; PRODUCTION OF 

SILOXICON, LUBRICATING GRAPHITE, 

AQUADAG AND OILDAG 

Having worked out the process of manufac- 
turing practically pure graphite, which I believed 
to be better than the natural products, I early 
in 1 901 took up experiments having in view 
the use of my graphite in the making of 
crucibles. The graphite was not successful as 
it then existed, but the experiments led me into 
a study of clays, that had rather an unlocked 
for result. I discovered that when a clay mod- 
erately weak in strength and plasticity was 
treated with tannin, extract of straw, and other 
plant extracts, it was increased in those prop- 
erties. The particles of the clay were reduced 
so fine that they would pass through a fine filter 
paper, and would remain permanently suspended 
in water. I believe this to be an explanation 

123 



of why the Egyptians used straw in making 
brick, and I called clay so treated and dried 
"Bgyptianized Clay." 

In 1900 I became interested in experiments 
having in view the reduction of various metals 
directly from their oxides, and on December 
4th and 20th, 1900, and on January 20th, 1903, 
I filed applications for patents pertaining to this 
line of work, all of these applications resulting in 
the issue of patents. Under the methods therein 
set forth, I could produce a direct reduction of 
silicon and also aluminum. All rights pertain- 
ing to silicon under these patents, I sold to The 
Carborundum Company for five thousand dol- 
lars, and the process was developed and con- 
siderably improved by Mr. F. J. Tone, and has 
grown to quite a department in The Carborun- 
dum Company. The process for the direct 
reduction of aluminum, as set forth in the patents, 
avoids the necessity of resorting to the electro- 
lytic methods as practised under the Hall and 
other processes. 

In the late Fall of 1902, I made application 
for two patents which were issued under date 

124 



of March 17th, 1903, one of them being for a 
method of producing compounds containing 
silicon, oxygen and carbon, and the other for a 
refractory material, this latter product having 
the typical formula of Si 2 C 2 0, and was called by 
me Siloxicon, a word coined from the names of 
the three elements entering into its composition. 

I did quite a great deal of work toward the 
commercial manufacture of Siloxicon, but owing 
to the poor condition of my health during the 
following two or three years, my thoughts were 
carried away from this, and on again taking up 
a line of experiments, my attention was irresist- 
ibly drawn toward the production of lubricating 
products of graphite. 

In 1906 I made a few experiments having in 
view the possible increasing in value of Carbor- 
undum as an abrasive. The experiments were 
a failure for the purpose I had in mind, but I 
found in the output of the furnace a small 
amount of a very soft, unctuous, non-coalescing 
graphite which I immediately recognized as an 
ideal lubricating product. 

I at once went into experiments to perfect 

125 



the manufacture of this graphite, and developed 
commercial methods of producing what I thought 
to be a nearly perfect product. Patents were 
applied for and under date of November 20th, 
1906, one was issued to me under the title 
"Production of Graphite." This I assigned to 
the International Acheson Graphite Company. 

The Graphite Company is now placing this 
graphite mixed with grease upon the market 
under the copyrighted name of Gredag, the 
word being formed from the first three letters of 
grease, and the initial letters of "disintegrated 
Acheson-Graphite. ' ' 

Late in the Fall of 1906, the thought occurred 
to me to apply to graphite the treatment that 
I had applied to clay and see if I could not make 
it remain suspended in water. The treatment 
proved satisfactory, the graphite being reduced 
to so fine a state of subdivision that it would 
readily pass through a fine filter paper and 
remain permanently suspended in water. I 
defined the treatment as "deflocculation" and 
spoke of the graphite as being deflocculated. 
Experiments showed deflocculated graphite sus- 

126 



pended in water formed an excellent lubricant, 
and it further had the remarkable quality of pre- 
venting the rusting of metal which had been 
immersed in the water carrying the graphite. 
This new lubricant consisting of deflocculated 
graphite and water, I called Aquadag, the word 
being formed from the word "aqua" and 
the initial letters of "deflocculated Acheson- 
Graphite." In the following Spring I succeeded 
in transferring the deflocculated graphite from 
the water medium to an oil medium, in which it 
also remained suspended, and this I called Oil- 
dag. Various tests of a severe and exhaustive 
nature showed Oildag to be a very superior 
lubricant, and some authorities have expressed 
the opinion that it would extend the possible 
life of the natural petroleum lubricating oils 
four times. 

Patents were taken out in twenty-three 
countries, (they including practically the indus- 
trial world) on the various processes of manu- 
facture and the products produced as Aquadag 
and Oildag, and I also trade marked the words 
"Aquadag" and "Oildag" in those countries. 

127 



Wishing the International Acheson Graphite 
Company to become owners of these new inter- 
ests I had acquired, I concluded to sell the 
patents, trade marks, and various interests to it, 
and the necessary meetings of the directors and 
stockholders were held to consider and act upon 
the advisability of an increase in the capitaliza- 
tion for the purchase of these interests. Fav- 
orable action was taken and the Company 
accepted my offer of sale. 

Under date of June 3rd, 1907 "A" and "B," 
by and through counsel, appeared in the Court 
of Chancery of New Jersey and brought suit to 
prevent the said purchase by the International 
Acheson Graphite Company of my interests in 
Aquadag and Oildag, and as a part of their bill 
of complaint, they stated as follows : 

"And your orators show and charge the fact 
to be that the said business proposed to be under- 
taken is not part of the business for which the 
said corporation (International Acheson Graphite 
Company) was organized, and that to engage in 
it is to embark the capital of said Company in a 
new and distinct enterprise not contemplated 

128 



upon the organization of the said Company; 
that the said processes claimed to be covered 
by the said letters patent are new and untried 
and have never been used with commercial 
success; that they are experimental and unde- 
veloped and at the present stage it is impossible 
to tell whether or not they can be made com- 
mercially successful or whether or not they 
infringe upon patented processes." 

When the papers were served upon me per- 
taining to this suit, I immediately withdrew 
my offer of sale of my various interests relating 
to Aquadag and Oildag to the International 
Acheson Graphite Company, and under date of 
May 25th, 1908, I organized and incorporated 
the Acheson Oildag Company under the laws of 
the State of New York, and to this Company 
I assigned all my rights and interests pertaining 
to Aquadag and Oildag. 

In looking back over my life work and re- 
sults produced, I believe these last two produc- 
tions, viz., Aquadag and Oildag, will prove to be 
of more value to the world than any of the pre- 
ceding products. Much yet remains to do in the 

129 



way of perfecting the details of manufacture, 
company organization and exploitation of the 
products, but the indications at the present 
time (19 1 o) are that they will be very quickly 
appreciated and accepted by the manufacturing 
and industrial world. 

After having solved the problems pertain- 
ing to deflocculation of graphite and other 
insoluble, non- metallic, non- fused, inorganic 
amorphous bodies, I found that the addition of 
an electrolyte to the solution, such, for instance, 
as acids or the solution of ordinary salt, would 
cause a flocculation of the suspended matter 
and sedimentation would occur, and I then real- 
ized that in Nature we had cases of this kind 
continuously before us; for example, the sus- 
pended matter of the Missouri and Mississippi 
Rivers, and the effect of salt water or other 
electrolytes in causing sedimentation furnish 
a very satisfactory explanation of the for- 
mation of the deltas and bars at the mouths of 
the rivers where they enter salt water, as, for 
instance, the delta of the Nile and the bars of 
the Mississippi. 

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CHAPTER XII 
SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 

Dr. Acheson is affiliated in the manner 
stated with the following societies, organiza- 
tions and clubs: 

Charter Member and Past President of the 
American Electro - Chemical Society; Charter 
Member and Vice-President of the American 
Institute of Chemical Engineers; Fellow of the 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science; Member American Institute of Elec- 
trical Engineers; Member American Chemical 
Society; Member American Ceramic Society; 
Member National Geographic Society; Member 
Franklin Institute; Member Royal Society of 
Arts, England; Member Chamber of Commerce, 
New York State; Member Chamber of Com- 
merce, Buffalo; Member University Club, Wash- 
ington, D. C. ; Member Chemists Club, New York 
City; Member Buffalo Club, Buffalo, N. Y.; 

131 



Member Park Club, Buffalo, N. Y.; Member 
Niagara Club, Niagara Falls, N. Y.; Member 
Automobile Club of America, New York City. 



132 



CHAPTER XIII 
PAPERS WRITTEN AND READ 

Dr. Acheson has read the following papers 
before the various named Societies at the dates 
given : 

Disruptive Discharges and Their Relations 
to Underground Cables, before the National 
Electric Light Association, August 29th, 1888. 

Lightning Arrestors and the Photographic 
Study of Self-induction, before the American 
Institute of Electrical Engineers, January 8th, 
1889. 

Carborundum; Its History, Manufacture 
and Uses, before the Franklin Institute, June 
21st, 1893. 

Graphite; Its Formation and Manufacture, 
before the Franklin Institute, March 15th, 1899. 

Egyptianized Clay; before the American 
Ceramic Society, February, 1904. 

Discovery and Invention; before the Mining 
Engineers' Club, Massachusetts Institute of 

133 



Technology, March 9th, 1906; Sibley College of 
Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, 
May, 1906; Schenectady Branch of American 
Institute of Electrical Engineers, October 12th, 
1906; Lafayette College, October 18th, 1906. 

Seventeen Years of Experimental Research 
and Development, before the American Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences, April 8th, 1908. 

Deflocculation of Graphite, before the Amer- 
ican Institute of Electrical Engineers, July nth, 
1908; American Chemical Society, July 12th, 
1908; Syracuse Branch of the American Chemi- 
cal Society, October 16th, 1908; American 
Electro-Chemical Society, October 17th, 1908; 
American Mining Congress, November 13th, 
1908. 

The Electro-Chemist and the Conservation 
of our Natural Resources, before the American 
Electro-Chemical Society, May 6th, 1909. 



134 



CHAPTER XIV 
HONORS CONFERRED 

Many honors have been conferred upon Dr. 
Acheson, prominent among them being the 
following: 

John Scott Medal (Franklin Institute) 1894, 
for invention of Carborundum. 

Gold Medal, Trans-Mississippi and Inter- 
national Exposition, Omaha, Neb., 1898, for 
Artificial Graphite. 

Grand Prix, Exposition Universelle Inter- 
nationale, Paris, France, 1900, for Carborun- 
dum and Artificial Graphite. 

John Scott Medal (Franklin Institute) 1901, 
for Artificial Graphite. 

Gold Medal, Pan-American Exposition, Buf- 
falo, N. Y., 1 901, for Artificial Graphite. 

One of the one hundred " Captains of Indus- 
try" who breakfasted with H. R. H. Prince 
Henry of Prussia in New York on February 26, 
1902. 

135 



Grand Prize, Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
tion, St. Louis, Mo., 1904, for Carborundum and 
Artificial Graphite. 

Count Rumford Premium, American Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, Mass., 1908, 
for new industrial products of the electric 
furnace. 

The degree of Sc. D. was conferred upon 
Dr. Acheson by the University of Pittsburgh, 
Pa., February 12th, 1909. 

The Perkin Medal awarded by Perkin Medal 
Committee, January 21st, 1910. 



136 



CHAPTER XV 

CONCLUSION 

In reviewing Dr. Acheson's life as related 
by himself, one is naturally inclined to attempt 
an analysis of the qualifications which he evi- 
dently possesses and which have enabled him to 
surmount difficulties and accomplish the results 
attained. One cannot fail to be impressed with 
the number of times he converted failures into 
successes, these almost invariably being the 
results of observing very small effects that would 
ordinarily escape the notice of an experimenter. 
Another characteristic that deserves more than 
passing note was his desire to tread unknown 
paths, as shown by the fact of his having entered 
entirely new fields of research, fields previously 
unexplored, or if attempts had been made at 
exploration, the results reported were rather of 
a kind to have caused one to avoid them. These 
points were well brought out by a statement 
recently made by a gentleman holding a very 

137 



eminent position in the electro-chemical indus- 
tries of the United States, and being very con- 
cise, we repeat it herewith in his words : 

"Dr. Acheson observed the transformation 
of carborundum at high temperatures into 
graphite, and drew from this and similar 
observations, conclusions respecting the effect of 
impurities upon amorphous carbon, whether 
normally present therein or derived from exter- 
nal sources, in determining its conversion into 
graphite. Based upon these conclusions and 
upon a long experimental study of the trans- 
formation of carbon by heat, he founded a new 
industry, to wit: the manufacture from such 
cheap forms of carbon as petroleum coke, anthra- 
cite coal, etc., of practically uniform grades of 
electric furnace graphite, of a degree of purity 
adapted to their intended uses, and by reason of 
their purity and uniformity, far superior to the 
crude, impure and variable natural product. 
He developed also electric furnace methods 
which have rendered possible the transforma- 
tion of vast quantities of carbon into graphite, 
thereby commercializing the industry. He also 

138 



developed the present industrial methods for 
the graphitization of electrodes and other shaped 
bodies of carbon, and these electrodes, by reason 
of their homogeneous character and freedom 
from impurities and extraneous bonding agents 
have, in many applications, completely sup- 
planted the crude and unsatisfactory baked 
carbon electrodes upon which the art of electro- 
chemistry, in its infancy, was forced to rely. 
It has often been stated that electro-chemistry, 
supplanting the wasteful chemical and metal- 
lurgical methods of the past and present, is 
destined to become the predominant agent in 
the conservation of the resources of the 
world; and it may safely be asserted that 
electro-chemistry owes its astounding modern 
growth, first to the development of the dynamo, 
and second to the production of Acheson- 
Graphite Electrodes. For the development of 
the great industry of electrolytic caustic and 
bleach, for example, their use has been indispen- 
sable. Dr. Acheson was pre-eminently and 
absolutely a pioneer in the graphite art. He 
was not a mere improver upon an existing art, 

i39 



but he made a great invention, discovered a new 
art, never known before and blazed the way as a 
pathfinder for future generations." 

This characteristic of searching out new and 
untrodden paths is again illustrated in a very- 
forcible manner by his work on the defloccula- 
tion of graphite and other amorphous bodies 
and the application of deflocculated graphite to 
the problem of lubrication. Lubrication is one 
of the most important problems with which man 
has to contend, entering as it does into every 
phase of civilized life. The manufacturing and 
handling of lubricants has been the basis of 
some of the largest and most powerful organiza- 
tions of modern times, and it has received the 
attention of our leaders in scientific thought. 

In the judgment of those competent of form- 
ing opinions for the world, who have investi- 
gated Dr. Acheson's products known as Aquadag 
and Oildag, he has in these materials, to a large 
extent, solved the problem of lubrication for 
future generations. In an address by Dr. 
Charles F. Mabery delivered by special request 
before the American Society of Mechanical 

140 



Engineers at their January meeting of 1910, he 
presented the results of very exhaustive and 
prolonged tests that he had made to determine 
the efficiency of Aquadag and Oildag for gen- 
eral lubrication, and in this address he stated: 

"Deflocculated graphite has peculiar prop- 
erties; it remains suspended indefinitely in 
water, but is quickly precipitated by impurities. 
On account of its extreme subdivision a very 
small amount suspended in water serves for 
efficient lubrication. From numerous and long- 
continued trials it appears that thirty-five one 
hundredths per cent, serves an adequate purpose 
and that a larger proportion is superfluous. It 
is certainly remarkable that such a small quan- 
tity of graphite is readily distributed by water 
between a journal and bearing while sustaining 
a load of seventy pounds per square inch of 
bearing surface, and that under high-speed 
conditions it maintains an extremely low 
co-efficient of friction." 

And in conclusion, he said: 

"The results presented in this paper, with 
reference to the uses of graphite as a solid lub- 

141 



ricant, indicate that in the deflocculated form 
it can readily be applied with great economic 
efficiency in all forms of mechanical work. One 
of the most characteristic effects is that of a 
surface-evener, by forming a veneer, equalizing 
the metallic depressions and projections on the 
surfaces of journal and bearing; and being 
endowed with a certain freedom of motion under 
pressure, it affords the most perfect lubrication. 
In automobile lubrication the great efficiency 
of graphite, in increasing engine power, in con- 
trolling temperatures, and in decreasing wear 
and tear on bearings, has been brought out in a 
series of tests conducted by the Automobile 
Club of America. In connection with the reduc- 
tion in friction of lubricating oils by graphite 
the extremely small proportion necessary is 
worthy of note; the proportion used in this work 
is equivalent to one cubic inch of graphite in 
three gallons of oil. The curve of temperature 
for Aquadag, an increase but slightly above that 
of the surrounding atmosphere, demonstrates 
an important economic quality of controlling 
temperatures in factory lubrication, thereby 

142 



avoiding the danger of highly heated bearings, 
which are frequently the cause of fires. 

"In the observations described in this paper, 
and in fact in all the work that has been done 
in this field, there is not a more impressive 
example of the efficiency of graphite in lubrication 
than that presented in the curves of friction and 
temperature of water and graphite; for water 
serving merely as a vehicle and completely 
devoid of lubricating quality, the graphite is 
permitted to perform its work without aid and 
with no limiting conditions." 



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